Other books that might interest you

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  Diary of a Lone Twin - A Memoir

  David Loftus

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  More than thirty years ago, David Loftus’s cherished identical twin, John, passed away. Ever since, a day hasn’t passed without David feeling the loss.In 1987, after recovering from a brain tumour, John contracted meningitis and found himself back in hospital for treatment. David, as always, was by his side. They were opening their twenty-fourth birthday presents when a fatally miscalculated routine injection forced John into a coma. He died within two weeks. 
  Over the past year, David has spent an hour every day remembering John and recording his story by hand. Diary of a Lone Twin is the product of that daily ritual – a powerful and deeply personal account that covers everything from enchanting and charmingly evoked childhood vignettes to the acute loneliness and raw pain that followed John’s death. 
  In sharing this beautifully written diary, award-winning and internationally acclaimed photographer David Loftus provides a rare insight for anyone who wishes to understand the bond between identical twins, and the unique bereavement of a lone twin that few people will ever experience.

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  The Two-Headed Whale - Life Loss...

  Sandy Winterbottom

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  An elegant blend of "polemic, industrial history, nautical writing, elegy, and ecology" (The Scotsman), The Two-Headed Whale charts the tragic history of the post-war whaling industry alongside the author's thrilling memoir of sailing the Antarctic.In 2016, Sandy Winterbottom embarked on an epic six-week tall-ship voyage from Uruguay to Antarctica. At the mid-way stop in South Georgia, her pristine image of the Antarctic was shattered when she discovered the dark legacy of twentieth century industrial-scale whaling. Enraged by what she found, she was quick to blame the men who undertook this whole scale slaughter, but then she stumbled upon the grave of an eighteen-year-old whaler from Edinburgh who she could not allow to bear the brunt of blame. There are two sides to every story.The Two-Headed Whale vividly brings to life the spectacular scenery and wildlife of the vast Southern Oceans, set alongside the true-life story of Anthony Ford, the boy in the grave, as he sailed the same seas and toiled in an industry where profits outranked human life. Drawing together threads of nature and travel writing with an unflinching narrative of life aboard a whaling factory ship and the legacy it left behind, The Two-Headed Whale leaves us questioning our troubled relationship with the extraordinary abundance of this planet.

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  A Pattern of Islands

  Arthur Grimble

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  Arthur Grimble was sent to the Gilbert and Ellice islands as a colonial administrator in the twilight of the Edwardian era. He lived there for the next twenty-five years and developed a rare passion for the language, life and landscape of the place. Fortunately his island neighbours, a fascinating cast of fishermen, sorcerers, poets and fighters, began to trust this charming, happy and energetic young man, and shared with him their treasury of stories from the days when warfare was endemic and magic an essential part of everyday life. A Pattern of Islands is a rich and complex cultural history of the dances and legends, rituals, spells and way of life of the islands. It is also a riproaring adventure story. Grimble learns to spear hungry sharks, to negotiate fearsome reefs and, on one terrifying day, is used as human bait to catch a giant squid.

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  The Secrets of the Heart

  Kahlil Gibran

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  An early collection of Kahlil Gibran’s writings, showcasing the many styles of this prolific thinker, all profoundly beautiful Kahlil Gibran reveals his vision of the soul and understanding of the world—past, present, and future—in this rich sampling of more than twenty works. Prose tales, fables, and poems evoke the mystic East and form a world at once powerful, tender, joyous, and melancholy. This collection, penned when Gibran was still a young writer, reveals many of the themes and styles plumbed throughout his life, including his lifelong struggle against injustice in “The Crucified,” his heart-wrenching lament for a Lebanon shackled by tradition and politics in “My Countrymen,” and his masterful use of symbolism and simile in “The Secrets of the Heart.” A writer with infinite abilities, Gibran continually seeks true beauty, no matter the form. 

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  The Chief - The Life of William...

  David Nasaw

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  The definitive and “utterly absorbing” biography of America’s first news media baron based on newly released private and business documents (Vanity Fair).William Randolph Hearst, known to his staff as the Chief, was a brilliant business strategist and a man of prodigious appetites. By the 1930s, he controlled the largest publishing empire in the United States, including twenty-eight newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and thirteen magazines. He quickly learned how to use this media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power.The son of a gold miner, Hearst underwent a public metamorphosis from Harvard dropout to political kingmaker; from outspoken populist to opponent of the New Deal; and from citizen to congressman. In The Chief, David Nasaw presents an intimate portrait of the man famously characterized in the classic film Citizen Kane.With unprecedented access to Hearst’s personal and business papers, Nasaw details Heart’s relationship with his wife Millicent and his romance with Marion Davies; his interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, and every American president from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt; and his acquaintance with movie giants such as Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Irving Thalberg. An “absorbing, sympathetic portrait of an American original,” The Chief sheds light on the private life of a very public man (Chicago Tribune).

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  John Lennon Unauthorized

  Geoffrey Giuliano

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  The myth of John Lennon has grown to almost god-like proportions, but sadly, much of the real man has been lost. Here is the ultimate tale of Lennon the musician, composer, humanitarian, philosopher, and family man in a no holds portrait of the Beatles bespectacled leader.

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