Other books that might interest you

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  We Made It Kid - 'Compelling...

  Jackie McCarthy O'Brien

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  'Compelling, heartfelt and inspiring. I found this book so real. so honest. It has taught me about drive, ambition, persistence and love. And what it means to be really Irish! A triumphant story of achievement in a world made for men!' - Katriona O'Sullivan, author of PoorJackie McCarthy O'Brien has led a truly remarkable life, from being born in 1961 to an Irish mother and Jamaican father (whom she never met) in Birmingham to growing up in Limerick. She was put in an industrial school as a baby by a priest for being an "illegitimate" black child and not recovered by her mother until she was five. As a teen she excelled at sport and played for Ireland in soccer, but when she was sexually harassed by a coach she changed to Irish rugby team. She got married at 21 before accepting her sexual feelings for women, and leaving the marriage with her three young children. Always a hilarious raconteur, this memoir tells her extraordinary story up until becoming a TikTok star and LGBTQ+ icon in her sixties.

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  English Girl's First Impressions...

  Beth Ellis

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  An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah, by Beth Ellis, is a well-edited, turn-of-the-century journal documenting a young woman’s visit to Burma. The account documents her ocean voyage to Rangoon, and her stay in a small, jungle-embedded, European community in Remyo. The author, who travelled to Asia alone to visit her brother, is quick to laugh at her own exaggerated fears. She gives us a glimpse into the less-than-glamorous lives to Myanmar’s British occupiers. The book was published in 1899, just thirteen years after the conclusion of the third Anglo-Burmese war, when Britain took formal control of Myanmar and made it a province of India. (Summary by Carol Fullerton-Samsel)

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  Sol's Texaco

  Anthony Nesci

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  Sol’s Texaco is  a moving memoir set in the Italian-American neighbourhood of Larchmont, an affluent New York City suburb, in the early 1960s. Through the eyes of Tony, a young boy growing up in a close-knit community, the story revolves around a local gas station, Sol’s Texaco, which becomes a central hub of life lessons, adventures, and the awakening of a young 
  boy to the realities of the world around him.
   
  Through vivid anecdotes, Tony shares his experiences of friendship, baseball, and the trials of youth under the mentorship of Sol, the gas station owner, and Linroy, who both set Tony right when it came to racism and made a man out of him. The memoir beautifully captures the essence of childhood, the struggles of fitting in, and the importance of tolerance and community spirit. Raised in shadow of Italian mobsters, this book delves into the ingrained racial prejudices of the time, showing how these are often imparted in early childhood by those closest to us, but 
  also offers a message of hope and responsibility: even those shaped by such a situation can rise above it and become mentors, helping to create a more just and understanding world.
   
  As Tony navigates the complexities of racial and cultural differences, he dreams of escape and self-discovery, his path intertwined with music and the allure of distant Australia. Sol’s Texaco is more than just a story about a boy and a gas station; it’s a heartfelt journey through the formative years of a young life, shaped by the people and places that leave an indelible mark on one's identity.

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  Henry Ford

  David Long

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Why is Henry Ford a giant? Because he put the world on wheels. Henry Ford did not invent the motor car, nor did he invent the assembly line or mass production. But more than anyone before or since he is remembered as the man who almost singlehandedly took an expensive contraption of doubtful utility and recast it as a machine which changed the world forever. A Michigan farmer’s son who became a dollar billionaire, a ruthlessly single-minded autocrat who became a folk hero, a pacifist who went on to inspire Adolf Hitler—he was a boss who paid his workers twice as much as his competitors yet waged an unrelenting war on unions and badly abused the power he had worked so hard to attain.

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  Brave and Bold: 100 Years of the...

  Nell Frizzell, The Kenwood...

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  A hundred years. Thousands of women. One extraordinary pond. 
  I have learned about peacocks and terrapins, giant cobras and booming widgeons; I have heard about celebrity spottings and al-fresco lovemaking and digestive biscuits. These things make up the history of the Ladies’ Pond, but they also give us an insight into a hundred years of women’s lives. 
  From code breakers to cake bakers, I have learned that there is no such thing as a ‘normal woman’; and over the last hundred years the Pond has played host to thousands of remarkable people. 
  For a century, the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath has welcomed women from every walk of life: artists and activists, swimmers and sunbathers, friends and free spirits. As Britain’s most famous female open-air swimming spot, a pocket of wildness tucked away in the middle of the city, it has long attracted adventurous swimmers from all over the UK and the wider world. 
  Brave and Bold celebrates one hundred years of this beloved London landmark through the rhythm of a single swimming year, from frozen Januarys to sun-drenched midsummers; through friendships, feminist activism and the exhilaration of open water. 
  Created in collaboration with the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association and rich with previously unseen archive material and new interviews – from Dolly Alderton and Amy Liptrot to lifelong swimmers of every era – this is far more than the story of one pond. It’s a story of community, women and wild water across a century of social and political change, from suffragettes to soap stars, war to liberation, and shared flasks of tea to acts of quiet rebellion. 
  Brave and Bold is both a love letter to Hampstead Heath and to every woman who has ever felt most at home bobbing about in open water. 
  Brave and Bold is non-fiction with the warmth of autobiography, attentive to nature and to the ponds, habitats and ecosystems that make the Ladies’ Pond feel like a world apart. Through that lens, feminism becomes a daily practice—held in friendships, rituals, and the simple bravery of stepping into open water. 
  For fans of Dolly Alderton (Everything I Know About Love), Sara Pascoe (Animal), and Daisy Buchanan (How to Be a Grown-Up). 
  HarperCollins 2026

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  Andy Williams

  Wink Martindale

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  Andy Williams got his start doing anonymous voice tracks for movies in the 1940s. He got his start singing at teas with his brother, and then made a move to singing on radio in Des Moines, Iowa and Chicago. Finally, Williams found his way to New York where he started to really focus on his singing career.    Television played an instrumental role in Williams’ success. His big breakthrough came as a singer on The Tonight Show starring Steve Allen. In February of 1973, he sat down with Wink Martindale to take a look back at his career. Williams discusses his early life, his work in television and fruitful career.

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