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  Around Madagascar On My Kayak

  Riaan Manser

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  In the last five years Riaan Manser has re-written the definition of tenacity and become the epitome of determination. Riaan rose to prominence when he became the first person to cycle around the entire perimeter of Africa. For over two years, he padalled a mammoth 37,000kms through 34 countries; some of which rank as the most dangerous places on Earth. It was a feat that earned him the title Adventurer of the Year 2006 and made his resulting book, Around Africa on my Bicycle, a best-seller. In July 2009 Riaan again set another world first when he became the first person to circumnavigate the world's fourth largest island of Madagascar by kayak; another expedition achieved alone and unaided. This incredible journey, 5000km in eleven months, was considerably more demanding, both physically and mentally. Daily, Riaan had to conquer extreme loneliness while ploughing through treacherous conditions such as cyclones, pounding surf and an unrelenting sun that, combined with up to ten hours in salt water, was literally pickling his body. The perseverance, of course, brought memorable close encounters with Madagascar's marine life - humpback whales breaching metres away from his kayak, giant leatherback turtles gliding alongside him and even having his boat rammed by sharks. Riaan travelled around Madagascar during a period of the country's political turmoil, which gave him unrivalled insight into the exotic island's psyche and even earned him two nights in prison on suspicion of carrying out mercenary activities. Around Madagascar in my Kayak is packed with engaging stories and beautiful photographs and is set to become another best-seller.

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  Frankel: The Greatest Racehorse...

  Simon Cooper

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  In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the twelve horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived. 
  Frankel was born on 11 February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents’ sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse’s life, giving readers an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart. 
  A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of 4, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse’s tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the the jockey who rode in all fourteen of his races, and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything. 
  FRANKEL by Simon Cooper is a captivating biography that chronicles the life of one of the greatest racehorses in history. It's a tale of victory, perseverance, and the extraordinary potential of both man and beast, making it a must-read for sports enthusiasts and animal lovers. 
  For fans of Gemma Hogg (Stable Lass), James Hogg (The World According to Razor), Tony Mccoy (Winner), Tom Michell (The Penguin Lessons), and Mark Paul (The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told).

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Rudyard Kipling, D H Lawrence,...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  The zenith of Empire is bookended by two catastrophic wars that slaughter vast swathes of humanity.  And yet authors manage to record and create fragile libraries of humanity, its talents, its dreams and increasingly its nightmares. 
   
  01 - The 20th Century - The English Men - An Introduction 
  02 - They by Rudyard Kipling 
  03 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence 
  04 - The Interlopers by Saki the pseudonym for H H Munro 
  05 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain 
  06 - The Juryman by John Galsworthy 
  07 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood 
  08 - The Haunted Orchard by Richard Le Gallienne 
  09 - Carnacki, The Ghost Finder - No 1 - The Gateway of the Monster by William Hope Hodgson 
  10 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  11 - August Heat by W F Harvey 
  12 - The Matador of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett

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  Jubilee City - A Memoir at Full...

  Joe Andoe

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  Joe Andoe is an internationally exhibited painter. His work, hailed by The New Yorker as "cowboy noir with a fashionista twist," is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, and countless other locations. He is a father. He is a writer. He is sober. That's now.Once upon a time, though, way back in the '70s, Joe Andoe was a delinquent bad boy growing up wild in Tulsa, Oklahoma—drinking, drugging, and driving too fast down a dead-end road. He was one car crash, one overdose away from head-on disaster. His art saved him.A life story told in discrete, arresting snapshots of despair, resilience, creativity, and hope, Joe Andoe's raw, vivid, and utterly original memoir is as striking as his painting. With echoes of Jim Carroll poetic insight and Charles Bukowski grit, yet still uniquely the artist's own, Andoe's literary portrait of his time to date on earth is as powerful as a heavyweight's hook and as spellbinding as a major crack-up on the opposite side of the highway. It is an important work of curiosity and grandiosity; a testament to a young man's resilience and genius and luck that enabled him to survive a life lived wildly out of control; an unparalleled adventure, a rocket ride from the sordid depths of self-destruction to the glorious pinnacles of…Jubilee City

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  The Picture of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde

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  The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine issue. The novel-length version was published in April 1891.The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian desires to sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade.The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian's sins.

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  Betsy Ross and the Making of...

  Marla R. Miller

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  A “first-rate” biography of the seamstress and patriot and a vivid portrait of life in Revolutionary-era Philadelphia: “Authoritative and engrossing” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). 
   
  Finalist, Cundill Prize in History 
   
  Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America’s most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of “the first flag,” Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes. 
   
  Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller’s winning narrative finally does her justice. This history of the ordinary craftspeople of the Revolutionary War and their most famous representative “reinvigorate[es] a timeworn American icon by placing her firmly into historical and social context [and] illuminates the significant role that ordinary citizens—especially women—played in the birth of the new nation” (Booklist). 
   
  “An engaging biography.” —The New York Times Book Review 
   
  “Fascinating.” —Cokie Roberts, New York Times–bestselling author of Founding Mothers 
   
  “A stupendous literary achievement. It’s not easy to accurately write about a real folk legend. Miller does so with historical accuracy, vivid descriptive language, and an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject.” —Douglas Brinkley, New York Times–bestselling author of The Wilderness Warrior

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