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  Flying Free

  Nigel Farage

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  In an age of colourless bureaucrats, Nigel Farage is a politician who is impossible to ignore, provoking controversy and admiration in equal measure. A fun-loving iconoclast whose motto is work hard and play harderA", Farage's charismatic leadership and determination to battle the forces of anti-libertarianism have made him a Robin Hood figure to many, and propelled his party, UKIP, into a position of real power in the country. Never one for a quiet life, this paperback edition includes the story of Nigel's extraordinary escape from death in a plane crash on the eve of the 2010 general election (the light aircraft he was flying in got caught up in a UKIP banner it was towing and crashed shortly after take-off, badly injuring Farage and his pilot), his recovery and return to the leadership of UKIP in November 2010. Featuring sometimes hilarious and often terrifying encounters with a stellar supporting cast, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jose Manuel Barroso, and UKIP's short-lived, silver-gilt masco, Robert Kilroy-Silk - and told with Farage's customary wit and humour, Fighting Bull is a candid, colourful life story by a fascinating and controversial character. It also shows that one fearless, determined individual can still make a difference.

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  The Pantomime Life of Joseph...

  Andrew McConnel Stott

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  This biography offers a “vivid portrayal” of the eighteenth-century English entertainer who “invented the figure of the classic clown that we know today” (The Guardian).   The son of a deranged Italian immigrant, Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837) was the most celebrated of English clowns. The first to use white-face makeup and wear outrageous colored clothes, he completely transformed the role of the Clown in the pantomime with a look as iconic as Chaplin’s Tramp. One of the first celebrity comedians, his friends included Lord Byron and the actor Edmund Kean—and his memoirs were edited by a young Charles Dickens. But underneath the stage paint, Grimaldi struggled with depression, and his life was blighted with tragedy. His first wife died in childbirth, and his son would go on to drink himself to death. The outward joy and tomfoolery of his performances masked a dark and depressing personal life, and instituted the modern figure of the glum, brooding comedian. In this “exuberant, impassioned portrait,” biographer Andrew McConnell Stott presents a man who left an indelible mark on the English theatre and the performing arts, but whose legacy is one of human struggle, battling demons and giving it his all in the face of adversity (The Guardian).

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  The Case of Stephen Downing -...

  Stephen Downing

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  The memoir of a man wrongfully convicted of murder and his 27 years spent in the U.K. prison system until his conviction was overturned. 
   
  On September 12, 1973, seventeen-year-old, naïve gardener Stephen Downing returned from his lunch break to discover the badly beaten, unconscious, thirty-two-year-old Wendy Sewell lying on the footpath of Bakewell Cemetery close to Catcliff Wood and the consecrated chapel where she had been attacked. Stephen ran to the nearby workmen’s building, and in the meantime Wendy’s attacker returned and dragged her body to a second location where she was subsequently found soon after. 
   
  Despite having learning difficulties, Downing was immediately taken into custody, questioned at length without a solicitor, and eventually signed a false confession statement. Wendy died some two days later from her injuries. Following a very biased, three-day trial during February, 1974, Downing was found guilty by a jury, convicted, and sentenced to what was eventually a full life sentence. 
   
  Just eight months later during October, 1974, there followed an appeal with fresh evidence from an eye witness who saw Wendy Sewell alive after Downing left the cemetery for lunch. However, the prosecution trashed this evidence, and the appeal failed. 
   
  In the years following Downing’s incarceration, he was moved from prison to prison, continuing to maintain his innocence—and in doing so, jeopardizing any chance of parole, as he was “In Denial of Murder”—until eventually his plight reached journalist Don Hale. Hale’s tireless efforts led to an appeal in which Downing was released after some twenty-seven years, the longest miscarriage of justice in the United Kingdom’s legal history.

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  Six Wives - The Queens of Henry...

  David Starkey

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  “Extraordinary. . . . It is a tribute to Starkey’s narrative drive, his puckish wit, and sharp discrimination that it doesn’t seem a page too long. . . . With each queen, Starkey offers a vivid character study but also has fresh discoveries that subtly alter the picture he started out with.” — Sunday Times (London)The dramatic, legendary story of Henry VIII, his six wives, and the England they ruled—told by one of the world’s preeminent historians of the Tudor era.Perhaps no one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were tumultuous and complicated, and made instant legends of six very different women. Henry took his first bride, Catherine of Aragon, when he was 17. Their 24-year marriage was a relatively stable prelude to what followed. Anne Boleyn, a pretty, French-educated Protestant who was the mother of Elizabeth I, was eventually beheaded. Jane Seymour served as a demure contrast to the vampish Boleyn, and gave birth to Henry’s longed-for son (Edward VI). After a brief marriage to the plain Anne of Cleves, Henry married a flirtatious teenager, Catherine Howard, who would be the second of his brides to lose her head along with the king’s favor. Finally, there was Catherine Parr, a shrewd Protestant bluestocking.In this brilliant new work, one of the world’s most respected historians weaves startling new facts and fresh interpretations into a spellbinding account of the emotional drama and political intrigue that attended Henry’s six marriages. With a keen eye for both the personal and the global stage, David Starkey masterfully recaptures the Tudor era—and the wives of Henry VIII—as only he can.

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  Paul Brand - Helping Hands

  Janet Benge, Geoff Benge

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  Watching his father perform medical procedures back in India had convinced Paul that medicine was about blood and guts and ulcers. To his amazement, he found that it was really about causes and cures, alleviating pain, and treating ill people with dignity. The son of missionary parents, Paul Brand did not plan on becoming a doctor. After training as a builder, he was called by God into medicine and spent a lifetime treating leprosy and restoring hope to thousands of sufferers. Dr. Paul Brand became the first surgeon in the world to use reconstructive surgery to correct the deformities of leprosy in the hands and feet. He strove to eliminate the stigma of the disease and rebuild the lives of those destroyed by it. A humble, brilliant servant, he influenced faith and medical communities around the world, reminding us that all men are created in the image of God.

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  Confronting the Presidents - No...

  Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard

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  Every American president, from Washington to Biden: Their lives, policies, foibles, and legacies, assessed with clear-eyed authority and wit.Authors of the acclaimed Killing books, the #1 bestselling narrative history series in the world, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard begin a new direction with Confronting the Presidents.From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. Whether famous, infamous, or obscure, all the presidents shaped our nation in unexpected ways.The authors' extensive research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with his mother.In Confronting the Presidents, O’Reilly and Dugard present 45 wonderfully entertaining and insightful portraits of each president, with no-spin commentary on their achievements—or lack thereof. Who best served America, and who undermined the founding ideals? Who were the first ladies, and what were their surprising roles in making history? Which presidents were the best, which the worst, and which didn’t have much impact? How do decisions made in one era, under the pressure of particular circumstances, still resonate today? And what do presidents like to eat, drink, and do when they aren’t working—or even sometimes when they are?These and many more questions are answered in each fascinating chapter of Confronting the Presidents. Written with O’Reilly and Dugard’s signature style, authority, and eye for telling detail, Confronting the Presidents will delight all readers of history, politics, and current affairs, especially during the 2024 election season.

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