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  Peter Alliss - Reflections on a...

  Peter Alliss

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  Peter Alliss was a truly monumental figure in the world of golf. His voice was the soundtrack to many who have paid even the scantest attention to the old game. This book records Peter's vivid recollections of a life well lived, looking back on his double-edged career in sport and media, one that is unlike any other and is surely never to be repeated.
  Sit back and listen to Peter Alliss do what he did best: ramble on about this and that in that famous voice of his, drawing sharp and funny observations from disparate quarters of life before inevitably tying everything neatly together and returning to the subject of golf. His memory for long-passed names and distant places remained extraordinarily sharp.
  He was also a man of his age which, naturally, meant there were more than a few facets of modern life he found confusing and exasperating. This, however, is surely true for any of us who have lived beyond the point where we wake up each day wondering what we ought to do with our lives.
  He appreciated his good fortune at being able to make a living from his 'ramblings' while, at the same time, possessing an acute awareness of his rare talent for finding the appropriate word or phrase while winging it over a television picture. His belief that, sometimes, silence is more eloquent than words flies in the noisy face of much modern broadcasting. He was all the more appreciated by many of us for sticking to this conviction and for daring to hold firm in the face of changing convention. Peter is gone now, but the spirit of kindness in which he lived his life reverberates still.

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  The Washingtons Volume 2 -...

  Justin Glenn

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  This is the second volume of a comprehensive history that traces the “Presidential line” of the Washingtons. Volume one began with the immigrant John Washington who settled in Westmoreland Co., Va., in 1657, married Anne Pope, and was the great-grandfather of President George Washington. It continued the record of their descendants for a total of seven generations. Volume two is a collection of notable descendants of the next eight generations of John and Anne Washington’s descendants, including such luminaries as General George S. Patton, the author Shelby Foote, and the actor Lee Marvin. Future volumes will trace generations eight through fifteen, making a total of over 63,000 descendants. Although structured in a genealogical format for the sake of clarity, this is no bare bones genealogy but a true family history with over 1,200 detailed biographical narratives. These in turn strive to convey the greatness of the family that produced not only The Father of His Country but many others, great and humble, who struggled to build that country. The Washingtons includes the time-honored John Wright line which in recent years has been challenged largely on the basis of DNA evidence. Volumes one and two form a set, with a cumulative bibliography appearing at the end of volume two.

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  Summary of Jon Krakauer's Into...

  Falcon Press

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  Buy now to get the main key ideas from Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild 
  Chris McCandless is a name that resonates with those looking to find the answers to everyday life in the boundless beauty and mystique of nature. And yet, his unfortunate death at age 24 proves that nature can never fully grant you everything you want. 
  Jon Krakauer looks into the strange yet inspiring existence of McCandless in Into the Wild (1996), from his comfortable, upper middle-class upbringing to his ultimately painful demise in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer attempts to answer why McCandless chose the vagabond life, what effect this had on others, and how McCandless eventually perished in Alaska. 
  McCandless will never be alone in his pursuit to make it on his own in the wild. He joins a small club of young people who chose this faith, but were unable to tell their tale themselves.

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  Izaak Walton's Lives of John...

  Izaak Walton

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  The full title of Walton's book of short biographies is, Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, &C. Sir Henry Wotton (1568 – 1639) was an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. He is often quoted as saying, "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” Richard Hooker (1554 – 1600) was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian. Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and the value of tradition came to exert a lasting influence on the development of the Church of England. In retrospect he has been taken (with Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker) as a founder of Anglican theological thought. George Herbert (1593 – 1633) was a Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest. John Donne (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets.Walton’s leisurely labours as a biographer seem to have grown out of his devotion to angling. It was probably as an angler that he made the acquaintance of Sir Henry Wotton, but it is clear that Walton had more than a love of fishing and a humorous temper to recommend him to the friendship of the accomplished ambassador. Walton completed and published the life of Donne, much to the satisfaction of the most learned critics, in 1640. Sir Henry Wotton dying in 1639, Walton undertook his life also; it was finished in 1642 and published in 1651. His life of Hooker was published in 1662, that of George Herbert in 1670. All these subjects were endeared to the biographer by a certain gentleness of disposition and cheerful piety; three of them at least—Donne, Wotton and Herbert—were anglers. Their lives were evidently written with loving pains, in the same leisurely fashion as his Angler, and like it are of value less as exact knowledge than as harmonious and complete pictures of character. (Summary by Wikipedia and David Wales)

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  The Joyce We Knew - Memoirs of...

  Ulick O'Connor

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  A collection of personal reminiscences of James Joyce by some of his friends and contemporaries which give a deep insight into the character of the man and bring to light many less well-known characteristics. Readers may be surprised to find out from these intimate accounts what an extrovert Joyce was: he was every bit the practical joker in the school drama society and in the gymnasium, and had ambitions to become a first-class swimmer. The perfect Edwardian 'card', the contrast provided here between the withdrawn Stephen Dedalus of his novels and the real Joyce is truly remarkable.

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  Massacre on the Marne - The Life...

  Fraser Skirrow

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  Massacre on the Marne is a graphic reconstruction of the experiences of a small closely knit group of fighting men - the 2/5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment - in the Great War. These men were not elite regular troops or Kitcheners' Men - they were Territorials.  In many ways they were typical of the men who fought on the Western Front. Using the words of the men themselves, taken from their letters, diaries and memoirs as well as quotations from the reports and dispatches of the time, Fraser Skirrow records how they learnt the painful lessons of trench warfare and became a highly efficient fighting unit. He also records how their hard-won efficiency was not enough to save them, for the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 was their last - in a few terrible hours they were virtually wiped out. This meticulously researched history allows the reader to follow the careers of these men through every phase of the war, from recruitment to the final tragedy, and it makes compelling reading.

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