Publisher: MVP
A finely honed abridgement of Emerson's principal essays with an introduction that clarifies the essence of Emerson's ideas and establishes their relevance to our own troubled era. This is the first truly accessible edition of Emerson's work, revealing him to be one of America's wisest teachers.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLEREx-Special Forces' soldier and host of SAS: Who Dares Wins, Ollie Ollerton narrates his incredible story for the first time.Where is your break point?Is it here? Facing the gruelling SAS selection process on one leg, with a busted ankle and the finish line nowhere in sight?Or here? Under heavy fire from armed kidnappers while protecting journalists en route to Baghdad.Or, is it here? At the bottom of a bottle, with a family in pieces, unable to adapt to a civilian lifestyle, yearning for a warzone.We all have break points to face - at the gym, in the office, in our personal lives - those moments of self-doubt where we have to dig deep, and find something within to grab hold of and push us through. Ex-Special Forces soldier Ollie Ollerton has faced his own break points and now he tells us the lessons he has learnt along the way. From survivor of a freak childhood attack to elite fighter, Ollie's incredible story features, high-speed shoot-outs, counter-terrorism and humanitarian heroics. Special Forces soldiers are not supermen. Bullets don't bounce off them. They don't hit the target with every shot. They have the same vulnerabilities and doubts as the rest of us. But ordinary people can achieve the extraordinary, under the greatest pressure, in the most challenging situations. Ollie's life has taught him that everyone has the capacity for incredible achievement, because it's only when it's crunch time, when you're down to your last bullet - when you're at break point - that you find out who you really are.Includes an exclusive Q&A and an extract from Ollie's new book Battle Ready.OLLIE OLLERTON CO-HOSTS SAS: WHO DARES WINS ALONGSIDE ANT MIDDLETON, JASON FOX and MARK BILLINGHAM.Show book
December 11, 1936. The King of England, Edward VIII, has given up his crown, foregoing his duty for the love of Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. Their courtship has been dogged by controversy and scandal, but with Edward's abdication, they can live happily ever after.But do they? This is a story of a royal shut out by his family and forced into exile; of the Nazi attempts to recruit the duke to their cause; and of why the duke, as Governor of the Bahamas, tried to shut down the investigation into the murder of a close friend. It is a story of a couple obsessed with their status, financially exploiting their position, all the while manipulating the media to portray themselves as victims.The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were, in their day, the most glamorous exiles in the world, flitting from sumptuously appointed mansions in the south of France to luxurious residences in Palm Beach. But they were spoiled, selfish people, obsessed with their image, and reveling in adulterous affairs. Drawing upon previously unexplored archives, Lownie shows in dramatic fashion how their glittering world was riddled with treachery and betrayal—and why the royal family never forgave the duke for choosing love over dutyShow book
In The Other Madisons, Bettye Kearse—a descendant of an enslaved cookand, according to oral tradition, President James Madison—shares her familystory and explores the issues of legacy, race, and the powerful consequences oftelling the whole truth.For thousands of years, West African griots (men) and griottes (women) haverecited the stories of their people. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would nothave known that she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave, andhalf-sister, Coreen. In 1990, Kearse became the eighth-generation griotte for herfamily. Its credo—“Always remember, you’re a Madison. You come from Africanslaves and a president”—was intended to be a source of pride, but for her it echoedwith abuses of slavery, including rape and incest.Confronting those abuses, Kearse embarked on a journey of discovery—of herancestors, the nation, and herself. She learned that wherever African slaves walked,recorded history silenced their voices and buried their footsteps: beside a slaveholdingfortress in Ghana, below a federal building in New York City, and under a brickwalkway at James Madison’s Virginia plantation. When Kearse tried to confirm theinformation her ancestors had passed down, she encountered obstacles at every turn.Part personal quest, part testimony, part historical corrective, The OtherMadisons is the saga of an extraordinary American family told by a griotte in searchof the whole story.Show book
Robert E. Lee, the famed Confederate forces commander and icon of the South, is a towering figure in U.S. and military history. The son of a famed Revolutionary War officer, his path to greatness included graduating at the top of his class at West Point, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War, and being asked to command the Union Forces at the start of the Great War. Declining the offer, he chose to remain with his home state of Virginia, which had seceded. His memoirs, here gathered and edited by his youngest son Robert Jr., bring to life a seismic period in American history.Show book
The thrilling combat memoir by special operations sniper Paul Martinez, who spent seven years in Special Operations and was a sniper assigned to 3rd Ranger Battalion. America has one force with the single mission of direct action to capture or kill the enemy. That force is the 75th Ranger Regiment. Staff Sergeant Paul Martinez was a Ranger Sniper with the 75th Rangers during the desperate fighting in Afghanistan in 2011 when the United States made the decision to try to withdraw from Afghanistan. It was never going to be easy. There were still a large number of senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders and other terrorists in secure locations throughout that country. If the United States withdrew from Afghanistan with these terrorists and their networks still intact, they could quickly take over the country and undo all the gains that we made. These terrorists needed to be eliminated, and there was only one force to do it-the Rangers. The mission was to capture or kill as many of these terrorists as possible. Paul Martinez was one of the deadliest snipers assigned to this unit, dubbed "Team Merrill," after the Marauders of World War II fame. Martinez and his fellow Rangers faced near-impossible odds taking on an enemy who knew they were coming and who employed every conceivable tactic to kill these Rangers. In When the Killer Man Comes, Martinez tells the harrowing true story of how he and his team hunted America's enemies in an operation that would have repercussions that are still felt today. This program includes a foreword written and read by Nicholas Irving.Show book
My Secret Life, the anonymously written erotic memoirs of a Victorian English gentleman who refers to himself simply as 'Walter' is one of the most idiosyncratic and sexually obsessed books ever written. In this vast autobiographical confessional the author recounts, in meticulous detail, his sexual exploits throughout the course of a life devoted entirely to the pursuit of carnal pleasure. Through this compelling exploration of the author's sexual behavior we are left with a uniquely entertaining insight into life behind the closed doors of Victorian society. My Secret Life is evocative, provocative, sorrowful, suspenseful, obscene, exciting and highly erotic...in it we are privy to the thoughts, emotions and memories of one of the most unusual, unsung and colorful English eccentrics of the Victorian era. Now, for the first time, the complete unabridged version of this unique text is being narrated and scored by film composer Dominic Crawford Collins as an 'audiofilm' (an audiobook in which the emotional landscape is explored through the music score). Each chapter of My Secret Life will be released at monthly intervals over the next ten or so years culminating in what is likely to become the longest audio book ever to be produced.Show book
