Other books that might interest you

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  The Story of my Boyhood and...

  John Muir

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  The Story of my Boyhood and Youth is the affecting memoir of the now internationally renowned John Muir, a Scottish-American boy subject to a most unusual upbringing, his transition into adulthood, and the path that led him to petition for the concept of protected national parks.
  Born in East Lothian, Scotland in 1838, Muir was raised by a fanatically strict, religious father with his numerous brothers and sisters and loving mother. From an early age, a shy Muir showed fascination with the natural world, and at aged eleven, his father announced the family were to move to an American wilderness in Wisconsin – Muir had a new playground.
  His adolescence is spent labouring on the family's grassroots farm. Working seventeen-hour days, an exhausted yet inquisitive Muir desperately snatches moments to himself, yearning to explore the environment around him, secretly studying books on topics other than religion, and rising at 1 a.m. to pursue his hobby of inventing intricate time and energy-saving devices – much to his father's disapproval and everyone else's admiration.
  At age twenty-two, Muir takes it upon himself to apply to university, and does so without financial or moral support from his father. He makes his way to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study chemistry and botany, and though never graduating with a degree, he is satisfied that he had learned all he wanted to there, before completing the rest of his nature education in 'the university of the wilderness'.
  The Story of my Boyhood and Youth includes a new foreword by Terry Gifford, and offers insight into the development of Muir's spiritual connection with the natural world, and suggests an explanation for his passion for freedom in the wilderness, a stark contrast to the forced rigidity of his early years.

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  The Poisonous Solicitor

  Stephen Bates

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  A brilliant narrative investigation into the 1920s case that inspired Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham.In 1922, Major Herbert Armstrong, a Hay-on-Wye solicitor, was found guilty of, and executed for, poisoning his wife, Katharine, with arsenic.Armstrong's case has all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery, from a plot by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers (indeed some aspects of his story appear in Sayers' Unnatural Death). It is a near-perfect whodunnit.One hundred years later, Agatha Award-shortlisted Stephen Bates examines and retells the story of the case, evoking the period and atmosphere of the early 1920s, a time of newspaper sensationalism, hypocrisy and sanctimonious morality.

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  John Haynes - The Man Behind The...

  Ned Temko

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  This fascinating and inspiring biography of John Haynes – the man behind Haynes manuals – looks ‘under the bonnet' at his extraordinary life, and his legacy to the motoring world. This is the story of how one man's vision and enthusiasm gave a small enterprise in rural Somerset a global footprint. The story begins with John's childhood in Ceylon and his school days – when as a young entrepreneur he sowed the seeds for what would become the iconic Haynes car repair manuals – to his time as a young RAF officer, and then as the driving force behind the growth of the iconic Haynes brand and the Haynes International Motor Museum. Family and friends recount the many adventures and experiences of living, socialising and working with John throughout his life – which more often than not revolved around his passion for all things automotive. John's legacy to motoring is summed up in a tribute from Practical Classics Editor Danny Hopkins: “John Haynes' immense contribution is multi-faceted and his legacy is permanent. John's extraordinary gift to the owners of all cars, classic and modern… facilitating their ability to be self-sufficient cannot be overstated. The Haynes manual is an icon… just like many of the cars, planes, ships and trains it taught us how to repair. John's life in cars has also left us with another legacy. His creation of one of the world's most exciting car collections, a collection he so generously shared with the nation at the Haynes International Motor Museum: it is his passion made metal.”“If you grew up in the era when cars and motorbikes were unreliable, John Haynes was the Messiah.” JAMES MAY

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  Two Crows Sorrow - Love and...

  Laura Churchill Duke

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  Two Crows Sorrow is about the life of Theresa McAuley Robinson, a woman who lived on Nova Scotia’s North Mountain at the turn of the century. This is the true story of Theresa’s love and devotion to her children and her farmland, which ultimately led to her demise. In May 1904, Theresa was found murdered and her farm burnt to the ground. Her second husband William Robinson was accused of the murder. Two Crows Sorrow follows Theresa’s life to her death, then William’s court trial to its dramatic conclusion. 

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  Classic Cat Stories

  Becky Brown

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  Listen to this collection of celebrated classic cat stories read by an ensemble cast of beloved audiobook readers - including Samuel West, Lorelei King and Imogen Church.Classic Cat Stories is an anthology that includes fairy tales and fables from the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Charles Perrault as well as comic tales from Saki and E. F. Benson. Cats, of course, have always had a dark and mysterious side which is explored to chilling effect by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe in The Black Cat. But above all, we love them and you’ll find here stories about all kinds of cats that tug at the heartstrings like The Man of the House by Ethel Colburn Mayne and other stories which celebrate their curious ways. This edition is edited by anthologist, editor and literary agent Becky Brown.Stories included are:The Cat That Walked By Himself by Rudyard KiplingDick Baker's Cat by Mark TwainThe Cat by Mary E Wilkins Freeman The Black Cat by Edgar Allan PoeThe Philanthropist and the Happy Cat by SakiThe Man of the House by Ethel Colburn MayneNo. 25 to be Let or Sold by Compton MackenziePuss in Boots by Charles PerraultDick Dunkerman's Cat by Jerome K JeromeThe White Cat by E NesbitThe King of Cats by Stephen Vincent BenetPuss-Cat by E. F. BensonBroomsticks by Walter de la MareTobermory by Saki

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  Edward Ball: Slaves in the Family

  PBS NewsHour

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  The 1998 National Book Award winner in the nonfiction category was Edward Ball for his book, Slaves in the Family. It's about the lives of his slave-owning ancestors on their rice plantations near Charleston, South Carolina. The book also tells the story of some of the thousands of slaves the Ball family once owned.

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