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Late, Late at Night: A Memoir
by Rick SpringfieldIn a searingly candid memoir which he authored himself, Grammy Award-winning pop icon Rick Springfield pulls back the curtain on his image as a bright, shiny, happy performer to share the startling story of his rise and fall and rise in music, film, and television and his lifelong battle with depression. In the 1980s, singer-songwriter and actor Rick Springfield seemed to have it all: a megahit single in “Jessie’s Girl,” sold-out concert tours, follow-up hits that sold more than 17 million albums and became the pop soundtrack for an entire generation, and 12 million daily viewers who avidly tuned in to General Hospital to swoon over his portrayal of the handsome Dr. Noah Drake. Yet lurking behind his success as a pop star and soap opera heartthrob and his unstoppable drive was a moody, somber, and dark soul, one filled with depression and insecurity. In Late, Late at Night, the memoir his millions of fans have been waiting for, Rick takes readers inside the highs and lows of his extraordinary life. By turns winningly funny and heartbreakingly sad, every page resonates with Rick’s witty, wry, self-deprecating, brutally honest voice. On one level, he reveals the inside story of his ride to the top of the entertainment world. On a second, deeper level, he recounts with unsparing candor the forces that have driven his life, including his longtime battle with depression and thoughts of suicide, the shattering death of his father, and his decision to drop out at the absolute peak of fame. Having finally found a more stable equilibrium, Rick’s story is ultimately a positive one, deeply informed by his passion for creative expression through his music, a deep love of his wife of twenty-six years and their two sons, and his life-long quest for spiritual peace.
Late to the Ball: A Journey into Tennis and Aging
by Gerald MarzoratiAn award-winning author attempts to become a nationally competitive tennis player—at the age of sixty—in this “soulful meditation on aging, companionship, and the power of self-improvement” (The Wall Street Journal).Being a man or a woman in your early sixties is different than it was a generation or two ago, at least for the more fortunate of us. We aren’t old…yet. But we sense it coming: Careers are winding down, kids are gone, parents are dying (friends, too), and our bodies are no longer youthful or even middle-aged. Learning to play tennis in your fifties is no small feat, but becoming a serious, competitive tennis player at the age of sixty is a whole other matter. It requires training the body to defy age, and to methodically build one’s game—the strokework, footwork, strategy, and mental toughness. Gerry Mazorati had the strong desire to lead an examined physical life, to push his body into the “encore” of middle age. In Late to the Ball Mazorati writes vividly about his difficulties, frustrations, and triumphs of becoming a seriously good tennis player. He takes on his quest with complete vigor and absolute determination to see it through, providing a rich, vicarious experience, involving the science of aging, his existential battle with time, and the beautiful, mysterious game of tennis. “Enjoyable…crisp and clean” (Publishers Weekly), Late to the Ball is also captivating evidence that the rest of the Baby Boomer generation, now between middle age and old age, can find their own quest and do the same.
Late Youth: An Anthology Celebrating the Joys of Being Over Fifty
by Susanna JohnstonA Who's Who of Ab Fab over-50s (and their pets, pet hates, wines, menus, travels, cliches, rants, ravings, songs, dances, films, books, fairy tales, passions, villains, recipes, Shangri-Las, sports, collections and liaisons dangereuses...which keep them young!) Contributors include: Arabella Boxer, Viscountess Boxman, Jilly Cooper, John Chancellor, John Hopkins, Francis King, George Melly, Ann Tree, Sir Peregrine Worthsthorne, Nigel Ryan, John Stefanidis, David Plante, Angela Huth, Jane Howard and Maureen Cleave.
Late Youth: An Anthology Celebrating the Joys of Being Over Fifty
by Susanna JohnstonA Who's Who of Ab Fab over-50s (and their pets, pet hates, wines, menus, travels, cliches, rants, ravings, songs, dances, films, books, fairy tales, passions, villains, recipes, Shangri-Las, sports, collections and liaisons dangereuses...which keep them young!) Contributors include: Arabella Boxer, Viscountess Boxman, Jilly Cooper, John Chancellor, John Hopkins, Francis King, George Melly, Ann Tree, Sir Peregrine Worthsthorne, Nigel Ryan, John Stefanidis, David Plante, Angela Huth, Jane Howard and Maureen Cleave.
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss
by Margaret RenklFrom the New York Times columnist, a portrait of a family and the cycles of joy and grief that mark the natural world: “Has the makings of an American classic.” —Ann Patchett Growing up in Alabama, Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.”Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.“Magnificent . . . Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Late Innings
by Roger AngellThe acclaimed New Yorker sportswriter examines the inner working of professional baseball, in these essays from the spring of 1977 to the summer of 1981.Late Innings takes fans far beyond the stadium view of the field and into the substrata of baseball as it is experienced by the people who make it happen. Celebrated as one of the game&’s finest chroniclers, Roger Angell shares his commentary on the money, fame, power, traditions, and social aspects of baseball during the late seventies and early eighties. Covering monumental events such as Reggie Jackson&’s three World Series home runs and the bitter ordeal of the 1981 players&’ strike, Angell offers a timeless perspective on the world of baseball to be enjoyed by fans of all ages.
Late Edition: A Love Story
by Bob GreeneA loving and laughter-filled trip back to a lost American time when the newspaper business was the happiest game in town.In a warm, affectionate true-life tale, New York Times bestselling author Bob Greene (When We Get to Surf City, Duty, Once Upon a Town) travels back to a place where—when little more than a boy—he had the grand good luck to find himself surrounded by a brotherhood and sisterhood of wayward misfits who, on the mezzanine of a Midwestern building, put out a daily newspaper that didn't even know it had already started to die."In some American cities," Greene writes, "famous journalists at mighty and world-renowned papers changed the course of history with their reporting." But at the Columbus Citizen-Journal, there was a willful rejection of grandeur—these were overworked reporters and snazzy sportswriters, nerve-frazzled editors and insult-spewing photographers, who found pure joy in the fact that, each morning, they awakened to realize: "I get to go down to the paper again."At least that is how it seemed in the eyes of the novice copyboy who saw romance in every grungy pastepot, a symphony in the song of every creaking typewriter. With current-day developments in the American newspaper industry so grim and dreary, Late Edition is a Valentine to an era that was gleefully cocky and seemingly free from care, a wonderful story as bracing and welcome as the sound of a rolled-up paper thumping onto the front stoop just after dawn.
Late City: A Novel
by Robert Olen ButlerThe Pulitzer Prize–winning author shares an “exceptionally nuanced, tender, funny, tragic, and utterly transfixing portrait” of one man’s troubled century (Booklist, starred review).At 115 years old, former newspaperman Sam Cunningham is also the last surviving veteran of World War I. As he prepares to die in a Chicago nursing home, the results of the 2016 presidential election come in—and he finds himself in a wide-ranging conversation with a surprising God. As the two review Sam’s life, the grand epic of the twentieth century comes sharply into focus.Sam grows up in Louisiana under the flawed morality of an abusive father. Eager to escape, Sam enlists in the army while still underage. Though the hardness his father instilled in him helps him make it out of World War I alive, it also prevents him from contending with the emotional wounds of war. Back in the United States, Sam moves to Chicago to begin a career as a newspaperman that will bring him close to the major historical turns of the twentieth century. There he meets his wife and has a son, whose fate counters Sam’s at almost every turn.As he contemplates his relationships—with his parents, his brothers in arms, his wife, his editor, and most importantly, his son—Sam is amazed at what he still has left to learn about himself after all these years.
Late Bloomer: Finding My Authentic Self at Midlife
by Melissa GibersonMelissa Giberson is a middle-aged suburban wife and mother of two kids, solidly planted in the life she&’s always wanted. Yet she longs for something more—something she can&’t quite put her finger on until, one day at the Y, she finds herself mesmerized by the sight of a naked woman and asks herself for the first time: Am I gay?This revelation sends Melissa on a head-spinning journey of self-discovery, one that challenges everything she thinks she knows about herself, forces her to decide exactly how much she&’s willing to risk for authenticity, and shakes the foundations of the family she&’s fiercely determined to shield from the kinds of wounds she sustained during her own childhood. Torn between her desire to be true to herself and her desire to protect her children, she is consumed by fear and conflicting emotions—and when her husband unexpectedly serves her divorce papers, her confusion only deepens.Adrift in uncharted waters, Melissa finds fragments of understanding and peace in unexpected places—in a conference room in Israel, a small fishing village in Cape Cod, and at a yoga retreat center—that help her deconstruct her preconceptions about faith and identity and begin to construct a new framework for her life. Over the course of her ten-year journey, she finds hope, love, and more courage than she ever knew she was capable of, and she gradually assembles the puzzle that is her—the real her.
Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative
by Glenn LouryA shockingly frank memoir from a prize-winning economist, reflecting on his remarkable personal odyssey and his changing positions on identity, race, and belief. Economist Glenn C. Loury is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time: he’s often radically opposed to the political mainstream, and delights in upending what’s expected of a Black public figure. But more so than the arguments themselves—on affirmative action, institutional racism, Trumpism—his public life has been characterized by fearlessness and a willingness to recalibrate strongly held and forcefully argued beliefs. Loury grew up on the south side of Chicago, earned a PhD in MIT’s economics program, and became the first Black tenured professor of economics at Harvard at the age of thirty-three. He has been, at turns, a young father, a drug addict, an adulterer, a psychiatric patient, a born-again Christian, a lapsed born-again Christian, a Black Reaganite who has swung from the right to the left and back again. In Late Admissions, Loury examines what it means to chart a sense of self over the course of a tempestuous, but well-considered, life.
Latch: A Handbook for Breastfeeding with Confidence at Every Stage
by Robin KaplanLatch is a judgment-free guide to breastfeeding that will teach you exactly what you need to know to meet your own personal breastfeeding goals.Early motherhood is a time of great joy. It can also be filled with new stressors—chief among them: breastfeeding. In Latch: A Handbook for Breastfeeding with Confidence at Every Stage, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, Robin Kaplan, addresses specific breastfeeding concerns, allowing you to feel empowered while breastfeeding and overcome challenges as they arise. After working with countless mothers who have felt unique in their breastfeeding challenges, and as the mother of two who overcame breastfeeding challenges of her own, she knows how deeply personal breastfeeding is.Compassionate and supportive, Latch covers the most pressing topics at each stage of breastfeeding and will teach you to:Establish successful breastfeeding early on with attention to breastfeeding positions, latch, mom's wellbeing, milk supply, supplementation, and pumpingBreastfeed through lifestyle changes such as returning to work, transitioning to bottle-feeding, supplementation, reducing nighttime feedings, and introducing solidsWean your baby/toddler from breastfeeding including emotional preparation, reducing feedings, and guidance for when your child tries to nurse againComplete with breastfeeding stories from new moms, breastmilk storage guidelines, and resources for additional breastfeeding support Latch will be there for you, holding your hand, every step of the way.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Biographical Writings
by Louis KaplanMarking the centenary of the birth of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), this book offers a new approach to the Bauhaus artist and theorist's multifaceted life and work--an approach that redefines the very idea of biographical writing. In Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Louis Kaplan applies the Derridean deconstructivist model of the "signature effect" to an intellectual biography of a Constructivist artist. Inhabiting the borderline between life and work, the book demonstrates how the signature inscribed by "Moholy" operates in a double space, interweaving signified object and signifying matter, autobiography and auto-graphy. Through interpretative readings of over twenty key artistic and photographic works, Kaplan graphically illustrates Moholy's signature effect in action. He shows how this effect plays itself out in the complex of relations between artistic originality and plagiarism, between authorial identity and anonymity, as well as in the problematic status of the work of art in the age of technical reproduction. In this way, the book reveals how Moholy's artistic practice anticipates many of the issues of postmodernist debate and thus has particular relevance today. Consequently, Kaplan clarifies the relationship between avant-garde Constructivism and contemporary deconstruction. This new and innovative configuration of biography catalyzed by the life writing of Moholy-Nagy will be of critical interest to artists and writers, literary theorists, and art historians.
Lasting Screen Stars
by Lucy Bolton Julie Lobalzo WrightLasting Stars examines the issue of stardom and longevity and investigates the many reasons for the persistence or disappearance of different star personas. Through a selection of chapters that look at issues such as inappropriate ageing, national identity and physical characteristics, this book will be the first volume to consider in depth and breadth the factors that affect the longevity of film stardom. The range of stars includes popular stars who are approached from fresh angles (Brando, Loren), less popular stars whose lower-profiles than their peers may be surprising (Taylor, Shearer) and stars whose national identity is integral to their perception as they age (Riva, Bachchan, Pavor). There are stars from the beginning of Hollywood (Valentino, Reid) to the present day (Jolie), and those who made uneasy transitions between countries (Mason), ages (Ringwald) and industrial eras (Keaton). The book examines the range of factors that affect how star images endure, including appropriate and inappropriate ageing (Griffith), race (Ice Cube) and digital technologies (Lee).
Lasting Ever: Faith, Music, Family, and Being Found by True Love
by Rebecca St. James Cubbie FinkMarried couple and award-winning musical artists Rebecca St. James and Cubbie Fink share powerful stories of faith from their family's journey to encourage you and draw you closer to God. With authentic storytelling and hard-won wisdom, Rebecca St. James and Cubbie Fink illuminate the heartaches and triumphs that have shaped their story as a married couple, as parents, as musicians, and—most of all—as Jesus followers. Journey with Cubbie and Rebecca and discover hope for your own story as they wrestle through questions like: How does God redeem life&’s big losses, like miscarriage, betrayal, and other traumatic experiences? How do we find true and healthy identity outside of what we do and what people think of us? How can we best honor our marriage and love our family well through seasons of great hardship? On the mountaintops and in the valleys, how do we discover an unwavering commitment to God that is lasting ever? Through honest conversations about singlehood, marriage, the purity movement, and living in the spotlight, Lasting Ever offers hope to all of us who face challenges but long to embrace life with a heart attuned to God&’s grace.
Lasting City: The Anatomy of Nostalgia
by James MccourtThe darkly intense Irish-American family drama come alive like never before in this "virtuosic meta-memoir" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). "The blood-red of Manhattan, the brilliant green of an Irish-American wake, the blue-rinsed divas of the opera and the bathhouse alike" (Michael Gorra) are hypnotically rendered in this "astoundingly smart book" (John Waters). With some of the most lyrical cadences in recent literature, the legendary James McCourt animates twentieth-century New York through a "kaleidoscope of sharp-edged, brilliantly colored memories" (J. D. McClatchy) and with "dynamic prose and high-brow erudition that has gone the way of the dodo" (Publishers Weekly). Braiding a nostalgic portrait of the eternal city with a boy's funny, guttersnipe precocity and outrageous coming-of-age in the 1940s and 1950s, McCourt revisits the fantasy city of his youth with Proustian memories of steam calliopes in Central Park, Hiroshima "obliterated in a flash of light," and closing his mother's eyes for the last time. As sensational as it is satisfying, Lasting City, a profoundly American work, identifies the spot where genius and madness meet.
Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II
by Stephen HardingOn August 18, 1945, US Army sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo. Marchione, a gunner in the US Air Forces, died like so many before him in World War II--quietly, cradled in the arms of a buddy. Though tragic, Marchione’s death would have been no more notable than any other had he not had the dubious distinction of being the last American killed in World War II combat. Based on official American and Japanese histories, personal memoirs, and the author’s exclusive interviews with many of the story’s key participants, Last to Die is a rousing tale of air combat, bravery, cowardice, hubris, and determination, all set during the turbulent and confusing final days of World War II.
Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson And The Battle Of The Century
by Adrian Matejka Youssef DaoudiA groundbreaking graphic portrait of boxing legend Jack Johnson, Last on His Feet offers a front-row seat to the Battle of the Century. On the morning of July 4, 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world’s first Black heavyweight champion—and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race—was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion then heralded as the “great white hope.” It was the height of the Jim Crow era, and spectators were eager for Jeffries to restore the racial hierarchy that Johnson had pummeled with his quick fists. Transporting readers directly into the ring, artist Youssef Daoudi and poet Adrian Matejka intersperse dramatic boxing action with vivid flashbacks to reveal how Johnson, the self-educated son of formerly enslaved parents, reached the pinnacle of sport—all while facing down a racist justice system. Through a combination of breathtaking illustrations and striking verse, Last on His Feet honors a contentious civil rights figure who has for more than a century been denied his proper due.
Last of the Ten Fighter Boys
by Jimmy CorbinIn 1940, against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain, 66 Squadron’s commanding officer, Squadron Leader Athol Forbes, asked ten of his pilots to record their experiences of flying one of the greatest aerial battles ever waged.The Ten Fighter Boys, published in 1942, comprised the first-hand accounts of pilot officers and sergeant pilots from all walks of life among them was Sergeant Jimmy Corbin, who wrote the third chapter. He was 23 – old by pilot standards – and, like the rest of the squadron, based at Biggin Hill, Kent. Now, sixty years later, Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Corbin, Spitfire pilot, tells his extraordinary wartime story. He describes how an ordinary working-class boy from Maidstone was propelled into the thick of action in the skies over Kent during the summer and autumn of 1940. As the sole survivor of the original ‘Ten Fighter Boys’, Jimmy’s story is all the more poignant now that the men who fought the Battle of Britain pass from living memory.
Last of the Summer Wine: The Story of the World's Longest-Running Comedy Series
by Andrew VineAn insider’s look at story behind the longest running situation comedy in British television history.Quite simply, Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in the world. It premiered thirty-seven years ago, in 1973, and, after thirty-one series it finally came to an end—even though all its original protagonists—Compo, Foggy, even Nora Batty—are now dead.Remarkably, for a series of such longevity and international appeal, it is all about elderly people, has little action or plot, and is set and filmed in and around the small Yorkshire town of Holmfirth.Now, Andrew Vine, the deputy editor of Yorkshire’s daily newspaper, has written the definitive history of this television phenomenon. It covers the show’s inauspicious beginnings, with low ratings, its endless reinvention as participants like Bill Owen, Michael Bates, Brian Wilde and Kathy Staff retired or died, the appearance of a string of guest stars from John Cleese and Norman Wisdom to Thora Hird and Russ Abbott (both of whom soon found themselves fixtures in the cast), and the ingenious plot contrivances as the protagonists became too old and frail to attempt any of the slapstick stunts with runaway prams—indeed any outdoor action.The town of Holmfirth is now a year-round tourist attraction, and the endless availability of the show via streaming, ensures that Last of the Summer Wine, and the book it inspired, will live on for generations of fans.
Last of the Great Scouts: The Life Story of William F. Cody ["Buffalo Bill"]
by Helen Cody WetmoreBuffalo Bill: Last of the Great Scouts is the entertaining and fascinating story of William F. Cody, known to millions for over a century as the legendary Buffalo Bill. Born in a log cabin in Iowa, he was a buffalo hunter, stagecoach driver, Pony Express rider, Civil War soldier, and a scout for the U.S. army before beginning his career as the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, which electrified audiences around the world from 1883 to 1917. Bill’s sister, Helen Cody Wetmore, has written an affectionate biography that recalls fully both the man and the legend, his colorful personality and ironic wit, as well as his celebrated international status. Some of her anecdotes read like the dime novels they were probably based on, but others provide fascinating glimpses of frontier life. Before becoming a showman, Cody tried his luck as a land speculator, a hotelkeeper, and a justice of the peace. These pages also show the author herself growing up on the wild frontier. Humorous and informative, Buffalo Bill introduces us to an unforgettable and controversial figure in American frontier history. This commemorative edition includes the full text of the original 1899 edition, a foreword and afterword by novelist Zane Grey, illustrations by Frederic Remington, E. W. Deming, and Rosa Bonheur from a rare 1903 edition, and an introduction by scholar Joy S. Kasson.
Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N' Roses
by Mick Wall'Last Of the Giants is the mad, funny, dark and often painful story of a lost band from a now-distant time' CLASSIC ROCK MAGAZINEINCLUDES BRAND NEW CHAPTER COVERING GUNS N' ROSES EPIC WORLD TOUR'Any story about Guns is worth reading. But when the author is Mick Wall it's absolutely essential' KERRANGMany millions of words have already been written about Guns N' Roses, the old line-up, the new line-up. But none of them have ever really gotten to the truth. Which is this: Guns N' Roses has always been a band out of time, the Last of the Giants. They are what every rock band since the Rolling Stones has tried and nearly always failed to be: dangerous. At a time when smiling, MTV-friendly, safe-sex, just-say-no Bon Jovi was the biggest band in the world, here was a band that seemed to have leapt straight out of the coke-smothered pages of the original, golden-age, late-sixties rock scene.'Live like a suicide', the band used to say when they all lived together in the Hell House, their notorious LA home. And this is where Mick Wall first met them, and became part of their inner circle, before famously being denounced by name by Axl Rose in the song 'Get in the Ring'.But this book isn't about settling old scores. Written with the clear head that 25 years later brings you, this is a celebration of Guns N' Roses the band, and of Axl Rose the frontman who really is that thing we so desperately want him to be: the last of the truly extraordinary, all-time great, no apologies, no explanations, no giving-a-shit rock stars. The last of his kind.
Last of the Donkey Pilgrims: A Man's Journey Through Ireland
by Kevin O'HaraKevin O'Hara's journey of self-discovery begins as a mad lark: who in their right mind would try to circle the entire coastline of Ireland on foot and with a donkey and cart no less? But Kevin had promised his homesick Irish mother that he would explore the whole of the Old Country and bring back the sights and the stories to their home in Massachusetts. Determined to reach his grandmother's village by Christmas Eve, Kevin and his stubborn but endearing donkey, Missie, set off on 1800-mile trek along the entire jagged coast of a divided Ireland. Their rollicking adventure takes them over mountains and dales, through smoky cities and sleepy villages, and into the farmhouses and hearts of Ireland's greatest resource --its people. Along the way, Kevin would meet incredible characters, experience Ireland in all of its glory, and explore not only his Irish past, but find his future self.
Last of the Donkey Pilgrims: A Man's Journey Through Ireland
by Kevin O'HaraKevin O'Hara's journey of self-discovery begins as a mad lark: who in their right mind would try to circle the entire coastline of Ireland on foot—and with a donkey and cart no less?But Kevin had promised his homesick Irish mother that he would explore the whole of the Old Country and bring back the sights and the stories to their home in Massachusetts. Determined to reach his grandmother's village by Christmas Eve, Kevin and his stubborn but endearing donkey, Missie, set off on 1800-mile trek along the entire jagged coast of a divided Ireland. Their rollicking adventure takes them over mountains and dales, through smoky cities and sleepy villages, and into the farmhouses and hearts of Ireland's greatest resource—its people. Along the way, Kevin would meet incredible characters, experience Ireland in all of its glory, and explore not only his Irish past, but find his future self.“One of the finest books about contemporary Ireland ever written...In a style evocative of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, O'Hara writes memorably of his most unusual way of touring his ancestral home of Ireland.” —Library JournalAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Last of the Dandies: The Scandalous Life and Escapades of Count d'Orsay
by Nick FoulkesFrom his first appearance in London in 1821 until his death in Paris in 1852, Count D'Orsay dominated and scandalized the whole of European society. For three decades he was the ultimate arbiter in matters of taste, style and fashion -- what D'Orsay wore today, society would wear tomorrow.He also enthralled Society with the thirty-year soap opera of his relationship with Lady Blessington, whose daughter he married and with whose husband he was suspected of having had an affair. Bisexual, flamboyant and outrageous, D'Orsay was said to have ruined the cream of British aristocracy. He toured Europe on an enormous spending spree; paid homage to a dying Lord Byron in Italy, set up a racing course in Notting Hill and a gambling den in St James's. Nick Foulkes' Last of the Dandies is a vivid biography of an astonishingly flamboyant figure and a dazzling portrait of an era.
Last in the Tin Bath
by David LloydWith his infectious enthusiasm for the game, David 'Bumble' Lloyd is one of the most popular cricket commentators around, blending immense knowledge and experience with an eye for the quirky detail and an unending fund of brilliant stories. This new autobiography recalls his childhood in Accrington, Lancashire, when, after a long day playing cricket in the street, he would get his chance to wash himself in his family's tin bath - but only after his parents and uncle had taken their turn first. From there he moved on to make his debut for Lancashire while still in his teens, eventually earning an England call-up, when he had to face the pace of Lillee and Thomson - with painful and eye-watering consequences. After retiring as a player, he became an umpire and then England coach during the 1990s, before eventually turning to commentary with Sky Sports. Packed with hilarious anecdotes from the golden age of Lancashire cricket, and behind-the-scenes insight into life with England and on the Sky commentary team, Bumble's book is a joy to read from start to finish.