Biografier

Photographer and best-selling author Joe McNally shares stories and lessons from a life in photography.

In The Art of Film, legendary Art Director Terry Ackland-Snow lifts the lid on his extraordinary career in cinema

"A rare gift: an inspiring tale about trees, trauma and the very purpose of life." -Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Empire of the Beetle Diana Beresford-Kroeger-a world-recognized botanist and medical biochemist-has revolutionized our understanding of the natural world with her startling insights into the hidden life of trees. In this riveting memoir, she uncovers the roots of her discoveries in her extraordinary childhood in Ireland. Soon after, her brilliant mind bloomed into an illustrious scientific career that melds the intricacies of the natural world with the truths of traditional Celtic wisdom. To Speak for the Trees uniquely blends the story of Beresford-Kroeger's incredible life and her outstanding achievement as a scientist. It elegantly shows us how forests can not only heal us as people but can also help save the planet.

A celebration of the process and artwork created for the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac

A celebration of the process and artwork created for the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac

The gripping story of an extraordinary life spent inside major disasters - from Hillsborough and 9/11 to Grenfell and Covid - from the UK's leading expert on disaster recovery.

The astonishing, forgotten story of the hero who escaped from Auschwitz to reveal the truth of the Holocaust.

Julian Bream is recognised as one of the world's leading guitarists, some would say the greatest. He was certainly for many years Britain's senior ambassador as a guitarist and lutenist, touring more widely and more frequently than almost any other artist in the international arena.Bream also did incomparable work in the recording studio to establish both the guitar and the lute as concert instruments. Not content with his unique status as a performer, however, Julian Bream has always been actively concerned with new music - commissioning works from a stream of leading contemporary composers.Surprisingly for a man of his international reputation, Julian Bream was his own secretary. He planned his own concerts, made his own travel arrangements, drove himself around, checked his own lighting and carried his own baggage. At the same time, he was an avid amateur cricketer and country gardener - growing his own fruit and vegetables all year round.In 1981 this intriguingly self-contained man agreed to share some of the load. Tony Palmer travelled with him in Europe and America over several months, drawing out from the essentially private Julian Bream his views on his art and on his position in the world of music. The result is Julian Bream: a Life on the Road, where the Maestro discusses the history of his beloved guitar and its role as a solo instrument, as well as his relationships with giants of contemporary music. With self-deprecating wit, he gives a unique insight into all that he then felt about his life on the road: where he was going, what good he believed he did, why he carried on, how he 'did it' - the guitar, the lute, touring, recording, commissioning, 'the old musicke racket', his home. Daniel Meadows accompanied them, and his beautiful photographs add to this unusual and exhilarating picture of a self-made man - who built, out of nothing, his own unrivalled status as a man of music.The re-publishing of Palmer's acclaimed book - for so long out-of-print and thus a much sought-after collector's item - will be welcomed by music lovers and guitar aficionados around the world.Praise for Julian Bream: A Life on the Road:'An immensely revealing series of snapshots. I don't think I've ever heard a musician being so frank about what it means to make a life in music' - Nathalie Wheen, BBC'Immensely informative, conversational, light-hearted and intentionally deprecatory. Fascinating and extremely entertaining' - Classical Music Weekly'This book is a brilliant vindication of the craft of the interviewer. It's remarkably frank, warm and clear-headed about a man who has too few self-delusions for his comfort' - Michael Oliver, The Gramophone'There is no better account of what it is like to be a touring concert artist' - PunchTony Palmer is a British celebrated and multi-award-winning filmmaker, music journalist and author.

Never before published letters and uncollected short writings of R. H. Blyth, champion of Zen and the person who brought haiku to the world.Poetry and Zen is a collection of the letters, articles, translations, reviews, and selections from the posthumous papers of Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964). Blyth's voluminous writings on Zen, Japanese culture, and the Japanese verse forms haiku and senryu captured the imagination of a great many readers in the English-speaking world in the decades following World War II. His enlightening wit and inimitable style struck a particularly sensitive chord in the artistic community, providing inspiration to many poets and writers and playing a very considerable role in kindling global interest in Zen and haiku. Blyth's penetrating insights on these topics in a series of books published between 1942 and 1970 helped lay the foundation for the remarkable expansion of Zen outside of East Asia, as well as the popularization of haiku as an international verse form that took place after his death. Poetry and Zen is the first collection of Blyth's letters and short writings. The generous array of Blyth's literary output and personal writing on display here showcases the wide-ranging interests and brilliant mind of a pivotal figure in the history of modern Zen and Japanese poetry.

What if we responded to death... by throwing a party? Journalist Erica Buist travels to seven death festivals around the world (Mexico, Nepal, Sicily, Thailand, Madagascar, Japan, Indonesia) in search of better attitudes towards mortality

"Known best for her exuberant, often large-scale sculptural works that celebrate the abundance and complexity of female desire, imagination, and creativity, Niki de Saint Phalle viewed making art as a ritual and a performance--a process connecting life to art. This unconventional, illuminated biography, told in the first person in Saint Phalle's voice and her own hand, dilates large and small moments in Saint Phalle's remarkable life as an artist who pointedly challenged taboos. In a kind of collaboration with the artist, Nicole Rudick has assembled a gorgeous and detailed mosaic of Saint Phalle's visual and textual works from a trove of paintings, drawings, sketches, and writings, many rare or previously unpublished. These confessions, declarations, meditations, and musings trace the most intimate contours of Saint Phalle's life. In some works, Saint Phalle articulates herself with startling candor and self-examination; in others, she carefully and slowly unwinds her secrets as she herself wrestles with them. Throughout, her agency in telling her own story is paramount."--

A new edition of the inspirational memoir that touched thousands - one woman's journey from cancer and near-death to ultimate healing and spiritual freedom. This 10th Anniversary Edition includes a new afterword describing how Anita's life has changed, including the discovery of empathic abilities that gave her a profound new perspective.

Embarking on the long road to recovery, Michael was soon ready to start writing about his near-death experience. Combining stunning new prose poems by one of Britain's best loved poets and the moving coronavirus diaries of his nurses, doctors and wife Emma-Louise Williams, this is a beautiful book about love, life and the NHS.

Shooting an Elephant tells the story of a police officer in Burma who is called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant. Loosely based on Orwell's own experiences, the tightly written essay weaves together fact and fiction indistinguishably, and leaves the reader contemplating the heavy topic of colonialism.

The COVID diaries of the alternative rock star and bestselling author of SING BACKWARDS AND WEEP

Dick and Angel Strawbridge share more charming stories from their life at the Chateau-de-la-Motte Husson. The follow-up to the massive Sunday Times bestseller, A Year at the Chateau.

A collection of funny personal essays from Seth Rogen, one of the writers of Superbad and Pineapple Express and one of the producers of The Disaster Artist, Neighbors, and The Boys.

In this hilarious, heartfelt memoir, the star of Mr. Show and Breaking Bad spin off Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it's like to reinvent himself at age fifty as an action-film ass-kicker.Bob Odenkirk's career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a "e;Homeric"e; decades-long "e;odyssey"e; from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations-with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him-it's almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one, and one is plenty.Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City's legendary Del Close, then somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing-eventually employing them in the immortal "e;Motivational Speaker"e; sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David.In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad-a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis-it's fun!Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob's trademark unflinching drive and humour, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.

"e;A compelling origin story of a time that really wasn't so long ago but through the lens of tragedy feels like forever. Kobe-ologists will devour this book, reveling in the anecdotes about his intensity & the engaging game recaps."e; -Associated Press"e;Every superhero needs an origin story."e; -Jeff PearlmanThe inside look at one of the most captivating and consequential figures in our culture-with never-before-heard interviews.Kobe Bryant's death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.In The Rise, readers will travel from the neighborhood streets of Southwest Philadelphia-where Kobe's father, Joe, became a local basketball standout-to the Bryant family's isolation in Italy, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe's legend was born. The story will trace his career and life at Lower Merion-he led the Aces to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship, a dramatic underdog run for a team with just one star player-and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe's dream of playing pro basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.In researching and writing The Rise, Mike Sielski had a terrific advantage over other writers who have attempted to chronicle Kobe's life: access to a series of never-before-released interviews with him during his senior season and early days in the NBA. For a quarter century, these tapes and transcripts preserved Kobe's thoughts, dreams, and goals from his teenage years, and they contained insights into and told stories about him that have never been revealed before.This is more than a basketball book. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him-the essence of the man before he truly became a man.

The instant number one bestseller. Reflections on hope, survival and the messy miracle of being alive from the bestselling author of The Midnight Library

The true story of how a ten-year-old's charity challenge created an endowment and led through young philanthropy to a career in medicine. A light-hearted but poignant parent-child journey, its excitement and suspense, purpose and fulfilment, recalled by the girl as a young woman. A portrait of coastal Suffolk, its cultural and natural heritage.

The essential guide to Karl Lagerfeld's tenure at Chanel from his early days in the 1980s, charting his constant reinvention of the fashion house that maintained Chanel as the most illustrious couture house in the world.