Other books that might interest you

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  Secrets from the Cockpit -...

  Robert Shapiro

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  ‘A witty, sometimes heart-stopping, and always engrossing path from “boy pilot” to elite aviator.’ – Jaundiced Eye columnist, William Saunderson-Meyer 
  Robert Schapiro always wanted to fly. Challenging anti-Semitic bullying, mockery and fierce rivalry, he realised his dream by earning his wings in the South African Air Force and going on to command C-47 Dakotas in the Border War. 
  He joined South African Airways (SAA) in 1979, soon learning it was a time when SAA crews were dominated by the ‘Royal Family’ – captains who thought themselves above the rules and who spent time overseas on drinking binges or coaxing air hostesses to be their ‘airline wives’. 
  When sanctions forced SAA to cut back on its routes, he was seconded to Japan’s Nippon Cargo Airlines, routinely flying between New York and Tokyo and grappling with often-hilarious cultural misunderstandings as he adapted to a Japanese style of operations. Schapiro is disarmingly frank about life as an international pilot. He divulges near misses, emergency landings, navigation errors, passenger shenanigans (seat sex, anyone?), how pilots control rowdy travellers and absorbing detail about the technique of flying different aircraft types. 
  Uplifting and humorous, his memoir offers a rare slice of aviation history.

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  I Am Jackie Chan - My Life in...

  Jackie Chan

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  As one of the biggest stars in the world, Jackie Chan has wowed audiences with death-defying stunts for decades. But who really is this boyishly handsome, lightning-fast Charlie Chaplin of martial arts moviemaking? Jackie Chan has never told his own story in his own words. In I Am Jackie Chan, he tells the fascinating, harrowing, ultimately triumphant story of his life: How the son of refugees in 1950s Hong Kong became the disciplined disciple of a Chinese Opera Master. How, after years of plunging off skyscrapers and living to tell the tale, a once scared seven-year-old boy broke into the Hollywood big time by breaking almost every bone in his body.

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  Christmas Eve at a Cornish Manor...

  Clara Venn

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Clara Venn.

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  For My Boys

  Claire Throssell, Michelle Rawlins

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  On October 22, 2014, Claire Throssell’s life changed forever after her ex-husband lured their two children, Jack, 12, and his nine-year-old brother, Paul, to the attic of their family home, before deliberately setting fire to the house, murdering his children and killing himself. 
   
  Claire had been subject to her husband’s cruel coercive, physical, emotional and financial abuse throughout their 16-year marriage. After she found the strength to leave her husband, his campaign of brutality didn’t end, but the courts ignored her, and their sons’ wishes. They gave him unsupervised access to their two sons, despite Claire’s concerns that he was very capable of harming them. Her worst fears came true. 
   
  Since 2016, Throssell has been an ambassador for Women’s Aid and IDAS (Independent Domestic Abuse Service). Determined to ensure the voices of children never go unheard again, she has played a fundamental role in the implementation of the Domestic Abuse Bill, as well as ensuring survivors of domestic abuse can no longer be cross-examined by their perpetrators in the Family Court. 
   
  Claire also played a significant role in pushing for all judges to be trained on the subject of domestic abuse and has spearheaded the Child First campaign, lobbying parliament to abolish the ‘presumption of contact’ guidelines in child custody cases. 
   
  For My Boys is Claire’s heartbreaking story and her tale of determination to seek justice for her sons and give a voice to all children who are at risk at the hands of an abusive parent. Her battle with government and court bureaucracy will anger and shock, but Claire’s humbling and remarkable story of strength will inspire.

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  A Successful Rehearsal - From...

  Anthony Hope

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  Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins was born on 9th February 1863 in Clapton, London.  
  He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  Hope trained as a lawyer and barrister and was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1887. Despite what was thought to be a promising legal career he had literary ambitions and wrote in his spare time. 
  His early works appeared in various periodicals of the day but for his first book ‘A Man of Mark’ (1890), with no publisher interested, he published with his own resources.  
  More novels and short stories followed, including the mildly successful ‘Mr Witt's Widow’ in 1892. Hope even found time to run as the Liberal candidate for Wycombe in the election that same year but was unsuccessful. 
  His first major literary success came with ‘The Dolly Dialogues’, a collection of previously published magazine pieces followed very quickly by his instant classic, ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’. He now gave up the vestiges of his legal career to pursue writing full-time. 
  Despite never again reaching the same pinnacle of success he was popular and wrote prolifically across novels, plays and of course, short stories though his writing output rapidly diminished after the war. 
  In 1918 he was knighted for his contribution to propaganda efforts during World War I.  
  His short stories are delicate, mannered and often surprising with their wit, humour and interplay of characters who say one thing and usually mean another.  He was very definitely a writer of escapist rather than serious fare but they are no less enjoyable for that. 
  Anthony Hope died of throat cancer on 8th July 1933 at his country home, Heath Farm at Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey. He was 70.

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  Ninth Building

  Jingzhi Zou

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  Ninth Building is a fascinating collection of vignettes drawn from Zou Jingzhi's experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution, first as a boy in Beijing and then as a teenager exiled to the countryside. Zou poetically captures a side of the Cultural Revolution that is less talked about—the sheer tedium and waste of young life, as well as the gallows humor that accompanies such desperate situations. Jeremy Tiang's enthralling translation of this important work of fiction was awarded a PEN/Heim Grant.

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