Better Late Than Never is the extraordinary story of how a man born into poverty in London's East End went on to find stardom late in life when he was chosen to be head judge on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing. Len will be telling all about his new found fame, not only his experiences on Strictly Come Dancing, but also on the no.1 US show Dancing with Stars and his encounters with the likes of Heather Mills-McCartney. But the real story is in his East End roots. And Len's early life couldn't be more East End. The son of a Bethnal Green costermonger -- he spent his formative years running the fruit and veg barrow and being bathed at night in the same water they used to cook the beetroot. There are echoes of Billy Elliot too. Though Len was a welder in the London Docks, he dreamt of being a professional footballer, and came close to making the grade had he not broken his foot on Hackney Marshes. The doctor recommended ballroom dancing as a light aid to his recovery. And Len, it... Views: 65
From the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter of The Theory of Everything comes a revisionist look at the period immediately following Winston Churchill's ascendancy to Prime Minister—soon to be a major motion picture starring Gary Oldman."He was speaking to the nation, the world, and indeed to history..." May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people? In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning... Views: 65
The conclusion to Buck’s celebrated Good Earth trilogy: the story of a man’s return to a homeland embroiled in revolutionOn the eve of a popular rebellion, the Chinese government starts to crack down in cities across the country. Fleeing the turmoil, Wang Yuan, the son of a famous general and grandson of the patriarch of The Good Earth, leaves for America to study agriculture. When he returns to China six years later, he encounters a nation still in the grip of violent uprisings. Unprepared for the social upheaval, Wang is torn by the tensions between old traditions and new ways, and by his formidable family, whose struggles he hopes to solve. A reflective finale to Buck’s groundbreaking and bestselling trilogy, A House Divided is a rich and unforgettable portrait of a family—and a nation—in transition. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate. Views: 65
The Tudor era belongs to its women. No other period of English history has produced so many notable and interesting women, and into other periods have they so powerfully influenced the course of political events. Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I and, at moments of high drama, Mary Queen of Scots dominated the political scene for more than half a century, while in the previous fifty years Henry VIII's marital escapades brought six more women to the centre of attention. In this book the women of the royal family are the central characters; the royal women set the style and between them they provide a dazzling variety of personalities as well as illustrating almost every aspect of life as it affected women in Tudor England. We know what they ate, how they dressed, the books they read and the letters they wrote. Even the greatest of them suffered the universal legal and physiological disabilities of womanhood - some survived them, some went under. Now revised and updated, Alison Plowden's beautifully written account of the women behind the scenes and at the forefront of sixteenth-century English history will be welcomed by anyone interested in exploring this popular period of history from the point of view of the women who made it. Views: 65
nonfiction; prose, African American Views: 64
The target: Stephan Conway, an American, founder of Protec International, the government's chief supplier of missile guidance systems. At first, Conway was the victim of blackmail. But then… he was marked for murder. Nick Carter was at hand in Berlin when Conway's wife was killed by a cyanide-tipped bullet.
It looked like a failed assassination attempt. But Carter knew the plot was more complicated than it appeared. Experience had taught him one important thing: a professional never misses… Views: 64
A gripping short biography of the extraordinary Alfred Hitchock, the master of suspense. Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century? As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and James Stewart... Views: 64
BasedFrom authors Missy and Mia Robertson comes the fourth book in the Princess in Camo series—Finding Cabin Six. It's summertime—and when you're a Carroway, that means heading to camp for an exciting week of fun, friends, and faith-building. But this summer will be different—rumor has it that the camp is struggling and may be sold to a resort developer at the end of the season. Cousins Allie, Kendall, Lola, Ruby, and Hunter are devastated by the news, so they set out on a mission to save the camp!It's a job that will take some strong prayer, a clever plan, and a little sleuthing, made difficult by the constant presence of Allie's new "friend," Madison Doonsberry, and California surfer-boy Nathan Fremont. But when they uncover information about a similar camp struggle in the past and discover clues that lead them to the true story behind the disappearance of legendary girls' cabin six, the cousins realize that they're right in the middle... Views: 64
Alexander Masters tripped over his first book subject on a Cambridge sidewalk, and the result was the multi-award-winning bestseller Stuart: A Life Backwards. His second, he's found under his floorboards. One of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century, Simon Norton stomps around Alexander's basement in semidarkness, dodging between stalagmites of bus timetables and engorged plastic bags, eating tinned kippers stirred into packets of Bombay mix. Simon is exploring a theoretical puzzle so complex and critical to our understanding of the universe that it is known as the Monster. It looks like a sudoku table--except a sudoku table has nine columns of numbers. The Monster has 808017424794512875886459904961710757005754368000000000 columns. But that's not the whole story. What's inside the decaying sports bag he never lets out of his clutches? Why does he hurtle out of the house in the middle of the night? And--good God!--what... Views: 64
THE FIRST MAN knew too much. So they shattered his body in a thousand pieces before he could give a shred of information.
THE SECOND MAN lived in terror. Death had pursued him through a lifetime devoted to espionage; when they pumped a bullet through his throat, he was not even surprised.
THE THIRD MAN was a lot tougher to knock off. His name was Nick Carter and he was ordered to pursue the assignment that had killed the other two.
This time around, Nick has to destroy the fanatic leader of Germany's neo-Nazi underground; a man wearing a known and trusted face — and hell-bent on becoming the next Fuehrer.
For Nick, the assignment begins with a blonde doing a strip-tease in a bedroom of an ancient castle on the Rhine… Views: 64
