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My Greek Drama
by Gianna Angelopoulos-DaskalakiA unique perspective on the politics of Greece -- One of the most popular and revered women in Greece, the author -- Gianna as she is known to millions -- has helped lead her country for decades. Equally poised among and a personal friend of heads of government, royals, and financial leaders, she has an insiders understanding of the current Greek crisis and its potential impact on the worlds economy. As founder of the Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Program at Harvards John F Kennedy School of Government and as a high-profile participant in the Clinton Global Initiative, the author is a well-respected opinion leader on the international stage. A story of politics, romance, and redemption -- Born to a middle class family on the island of Crete, Gianna describes how her upbringing provided her with the strength and determination she needed to succeed in the male-dominated world of Greek politics and business. After building her own law practice, she leaped into the rough-and-tumble world of governance, where she spearheaded educational reform as an Athens city councilwoman and quickly rose to a position of national prominence as a member of the Hellenic Parliament. Her marriage to one of the worlds richest businessmen was her entree into a world few people have ever experienced. That world has allowed her to understand how power really works and how to overcome adversity to achieve something truly great. A first-hand view of the political games behind hosting the Olympics -- Gianna led her countrys efforts both to bid for and to host the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games, an event that the head of the International Olympic Committee described as unforgettable dream games. She reveals, however, that the reality of putting together the games was a nightmare. It took a herculean effort to overcome political bickering, bureaucratic intransigence, and international intrigue and deliver an event that truly honoured the heritage of the games. Never before or since have the Greek people come together in such unifying self-sacrifice -- an effort Gianna insists is needed for Greece to survive the current crisis.
My Grief Is Not Like Yours
by Theo BoydA daughter's heartbreaking and tragic story of losing her parents—and hope for those walking their own journey through grief.Theo Boyd had always been close to her parents. Her father was a Texas peanut farmer, rancher, and preacher; her mother, deaf from a young age, was the glue that held them all together. Then one summer day in 2019, everything changed when Theo&’s mother died in a tragic accident on their family farm. As Theo began to process this loss, her marriage started to unravel, adding another painful layer to her grief. Meanwhile, Theo continued to care for her father who was shaken to his core by the tragedy. Nothing could erase the agony he felt from losing his love and soulmate of over fifty years, and one night he chose to escape his pain by ending his life. Theo suddenly had to learn to live without the two people who were her constant love and support—her parents. In My Grief Is Not Like Yours, Theo gives an unforgettable account of how quickly life can turn to grief. Beautifully woven, this book is threaded with memories and raw emotions that are seldom discussed. Theo shows readers how she endured the unimaginable. She walks beside anyone navigating through their grief, helping them feel less alone and guiding them to hope and healing. &“We are all unique, in life and in death. We are born, we live, we die, and we grieve, but my grief is not like yours.&” —Theo Boyd
My GuantÁnamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me
by Mahvish Rukhsana KhanMahvish Khan is the only Afghan-American to walk into Guantanamo of her own accord. This unique book is her story, and the story of the men she grew to know uniquely well inside the cages of Guantanamo. Mahvish Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Afghan parents. She was outraged that her country, the USA, seemed to have suspended its tradition of equality for all under the law with regard to those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and so she volunteered to translate for the lawyers - including British lawyer and founder of Reprieve Clive Stafford Smith - acting pro bono for the prisoners. Because she spoke their language, understood their customs and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home, they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away at home. Some at Guantanamo are terrorists who deserve to be convicted and sentenced as such. Some are paediatricians and school teachers. We cannot tell the difference until we see them as individuals with their own unique stories. They deserve that much. No other writer has had access to the detainees. This book is a testament to their captivity. It documents the voices of men who have been tortured and held in a black hole of indefinite detention without legal recourse for years. It shows who they are and also allows readers to see that these men are more similar to us than they are different.
My Guru and His Disciple
by Christopher IsherwoodMy Guru and His Disciple is a sweetly modest and honest portrait of Isherwood's spiritual instructor, Swami Prabhavananda, the Hindu priest who guided Isherwood for some thirty years. It is also a book about the often amusing and sometimes painful counterpoint between worldliness and holiness in Isherwood's own life. Sexual sprees, all-night drinking bouts, a fast car ride with Greta Garbo, scriptwriting conferences at M-G-M, intellectual sparring sessions with Berthold Brecht alternated with nights of fasting at the Vedanta Center, a six-month period of celibacy and sobriety, and the pious drudgery of translating (in collaboration with the Swami) the Bhagavad-Gita. Seldom has a single man been owed with such strong drives toward both sensuality and spirituality, abandon and discipline; out of the passionate dialectic between these drives, My Guru and His Disciple has been written.
My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse
by Edgar Prado John EisenbergA new superstar appeared on the American sports landscape in the spring of 2006: Barbaro, a three-year-old racehorse, won the Kentucky Derby by six and a half lengths, the largest margin of victory in sixty years. Barbaro's impressive performance immediately stirred talk of a possible Triple Crown. But in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, the horse suffered a catastrophic leg injury that ended his undefeated career and left him fighting for his life. Edgar Prado, a native of Peru and one of the world's top jockeys, rode Barbaro to glory and then stood beside him for months as the horse valiantly struggled to survive and millions of fans held their breath. Having ridden in more than twenty-five thousand races over the previous two decades, Prado thought he had been around too long to fall for any one horse, but Barbaro-intelligent, charismatic, and resourceful in sickness as well as in health-stole his heart. In My Guy Barbaro, Prado recounts his own story, a tale of grit and dreams that moves from his impoverished childhood in Lima, Peru, to the winner's circles of the greatest racetracks in the world, and memorably chronicles his emotional time with Barbaro before, during, and after the horse's breakdown. Their bond was special and immeasurable. With Prado still reeling from a wrenching personal loss, Barbaro lifted his spirits by giving him the ride of a lifetime in the Derby. When the tables turned and the horse needed support two weeks later, Prado was there, going out of his way to make a succession of visits to the New Bolton Center, the animal hospital in Pennsylvania where Barbaro underwent more than two dozen surgeries and was ultimately put down. Barbaro made worldwide headlines for eight months, and now Prado's poignant, clear-eyed narrative takes us where no reader has gone before-onto Barbaro's back in the heat of a race and into the intensive care suite where Barbaro's life-and-death drama played itself out. My Guy Barbaro is a heartwarming, unforgettable story of a man and his love for a beautiful animal and an irreplaceable teammate.
My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak With America's Favorite Horse
by Edgar Prado John EisenbergA new superstar appeared on the American sports landscape in the spring of 2006. Barbaro, a three-year-old racehorse, won the Kentucky Derby by the largest margin of victory in sixty years, stirring talk of a possible Triple Crown. But in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, the magnificent animal suffered a catastrophic leg injury that ended his un-defeated career and left him fighting for his life.One of the world's top jockeys, Edgar Prado rode Barbaro to glory and then stood beside him for months as the horse valiantly struggled to survive. My Guy Barbaro is the true story of the dream that carried Prado from an impoverished childhood in Lima, Peru, to the winner's circles of the world's greatest racetracks—and is the heartwarming account of his love for a beautiful, talented, irreplaceable teammate.
My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir
by Garry MarshallWith the television hits The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy, and movies like The Flamingo Kid, Beaches, Pretty Woman, and The Princess Diaries under his belt, Garry Marshall has been among the most successful writers, directors, and producers in America for more than five decades. His work on the small and big screen has delighted audiences for the last three decades and has withstood the test of time. In My Happy Days in Hollywood, Marshall takes us on a journey from his stickball-playing days in the Bronx to his time at the helm of some of the most popular television series and movies of all time, sharing the joys and challenges of working with the Fonz and the young Julia Roberts, the "street performer" Robin Williams, and the young Anne Hathaway, among many others. This honest, vibrant, and often hilarious memoir reveals a man whose career has been defined by his drive to make people laugh and whose personal philosophy--despite his tremendous achievements--has always been that life is more important than show business.From the Hardcover edition.
My Heart: A Novel
by Semezdin Mehmedinovic"Intelligent, honest, and full of heart," My Heart is an intimate work of autobiographical fiction by one of ex-Yugoslavia's greatest writers about his family's experience as refugees from the Bosnian war--a timeless story of love, memory, and the resilience of the human spirit that "has all the qualities one might seek in a friend" (Etgar Keret, author of The Seven Goods Years)."Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die." When a writer suffers a heart attack at the age of fifty, he must confront his mortality in a country that is not his native home. Confined to a hospital bed and overcome by a sense of powerlessness, he reflects on the fragility of life and finds extraordinary meaning in the quotidian. In this affecting autobiographical novel, Semezdin Mehmedinovic explores the love he and his family have for one another, strengthened by trauma; their harrowing experience of the Bosnian war, which led them to flee for the United States as refugees; eerie premonitions of Donald Trump's presidency; the life and work of a writer; and the nature of memory and grief.Poetically explosive and pure to the core, My Heart serves as a kind of mirror, reflecting our human strengths and weaknesses along with the most important issues on our minds--love and death, the present and the past, sickness and health, leaving and staying.
My Heart Can't Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome
by Amy SilvermanAll parent stories about raising a child with Down syndrome are special and unique, but in the hands of a good writer, they can have the power to reach, change, and resonate far beyond family and friends. And that is the case with this book by journalist, blogger, and NPR contributor Amy Silverman. Amy bravely looks at her life, before and after her daughter Sophie was born, and reflects on her transformation from a spoiled, self-centered brat, who used words like retard and switched lines at the Safeway to avoid a bagger with special needs, into the mother of a child with Down syndrome and all that her new identity entails. She describes her evolution as gradual, one built by processing her fears and facing questions both big and small about Sophie, Down syndrome, and her place in the world. Funny, touching, and honest, this wonderful book looks at a daughter and her power to change minds and fill hearts with love so deep that, as Sophie once remarked to her mum, I love you so much my heart can't even believe it! Theirs is a story worth reading.
My Heart Is Africa: Three Years with the Flying Doctors
by Scott GriffinIn 1996, Scott Griffin left the comfortable routine of his life as a successful businessman to fly solo to Africa in his single-engine Cessna 180 to work for the Flying Doctors Service, an African organization that flies doctors and nurses to remote areas to administer medical assistance. My Heart is Africa is an engaging personal story of his two-year adventure but it is also the story of Africa -- its problems and people, its landscape and limitations, its culture and courage. Griffin's intrepid flying odyssey takes the reader on a journey across Africa and into the lives of the doctors, nurses, aid workers and eccentric characters that crossed his path along the way. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the AMREF Flying Doctors Service.
My Heart is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
by Eve LaplanteLittle Women's "Marmee" is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction--Louisa May Alcott's own mother, Abigail--has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived. Until now. When Abigail's biographer and great-niece Eve LaPlante found a collection of letters and diaries in an attic trunk and began exploring the Alcott family archives, a window opened onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding in plain sight. These discoveries, and others, inform LaPlante's groundbreaking new dual biography, Marmee & Louisa, a companion volume to My Heart Is Boundless. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker, a feminist far ahead of her time. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a career. Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman's story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail's private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, a wife, a sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
My Heart is Boundless
by Eve LaplanteLittle Women's "Marmee" is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction--Louisa May Alcott's own mother, Abigail--has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived. Until now. When Abigail's biographer and great-niece Eve LaPlante found a collection of letters and diaries in an attic trunk and began exploring the Alcott family archives, a window opened onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding in plain sight. These discoveries, and others, inform LaPlante's groundbreaking new dual biography, Marmee & Louisa, a companion volume to My Heart Is Boundless. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker, a feminist far ahead of her time. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a career. Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman's story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail's private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, a wife, a sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
My Heart Is Not Blind: On Blindness And Perception
by Michael NyeMy Heart Is Not Blind: On Blindness and Perception is a collection of stunning portraits of blind and visually impaired people taken by photographer Michael Nye. Each image is accompanied by an intimate story told by the subject concerning his or her experiences and unique perspective. The causes of vision loss range from genetic predispositions (retinitis pigmentosa) or disease (glaucoma) to external circumstances such as accidents (struck by a train) or violence (gunshot wound). The people in this diverse group differ not only in their particular conditions and losses but also in their cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Taken as a whole, however, the accounts of adapting to changing modes of perception are bound by a common theme of resilience, revealed in shared reactions and unexpected insights. The subjects depicted in My Heart Is Not Blind share their experiences and unique perspectives in a personal narratives that accompany their respective portraits. Most speak of the transition from sight to vision loss, and how that has changed―and not changed―their ability to perceive the surrounding world. Some question the classification of blindness as a disability. One participant proposes that blindness may, in some ways, even aid in perception, musing, “if you can always see the sun, you can never discover the stars.” My Heart Is Not Blind offers a window into the world of the blind and visually impaired, revealing surprising similarities and fascinating differences alongside compelling accounts of survival, adaptation, and heightened understanding. The collection invites us to reconsider what we think we know about blindness in order to gain a deeper understanding of vision and perception.
My Heart Lies South: The Story of My Mexican Marraige
by Elizabeth Borton de TrevinoWhat happens when a thoroughly twentieth-century American lady journalist becomes a Mexican señora in nineteen-thirties' provincial Monterrey? She finds herself-sometimes hilariously-coping with servants, daily food allowances, bargaining, and dramatic Latin emotions. In this vivid autobiography, Newbery Award winning author Elizabeth Borton de Treviño brings to life her experiences with the culture and the faith of a civilization so close to the United States, but rarely appreciated or understood. This special young people's edition presents the humor and the insights of a remarkable woman and her contact with an era which is now past, but not to be forgotten.
My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou
by Kadiatou Diallo Craig WolffDescended from West African kings and healers, raised in the turbulence of Guinea in the 1960s, Kadiatou Diallo was married off at the age of thirteen and bore her first child when she was sixteen. Twenty-three years later, that child—a gentle, innocent young man named Amadou Diallo—was gunned down without cause on the streets of New York City. Now Kadi Diallo tells the astonishing, inspiring story of her life, her loss, and the defiant strength she has always found within. It was Kadi Diallo’s voice that captivated the public when she came to America to defend her slain son, and it is that same voice—candid, wise, and generous—that fills the pages of this extraordinary book. Kadi reaches back to her earliest memories of growing up in Guinea, the daughter of a strict man who was thwarted by the relics of the French colonial system. Raised in a world in which age-old religious and cultural rituals were disappearing before the onslaught of modernity, Kadi saw her own childhood end abruptly at age thirteen when her father literally gave her away in marriage. Kadi prayed for death, but instead she found herself plunged into a baffling new life—the life of a second wife in a strange household in a distant country, and soon afterwards the teenage mother of a sweet-natured son. Yet somehow, Kadi managed not only to survive but to flourish. Despite the rigid strictures of African-Islamic culture, she attended school and later started a successful business of her own. She eventually divorced and remarried and lived for eight years in Bangkok. Back in Guinea, she learned that her oldest child Amadou had been shot in New York City in a case of racial profiling. Kadi read with outrage the American newspaper description of her son as “an unarmed West African street vendor. ” “Nothing,” she writes, “could be more distant from the truth. ” Now, with great pride and searing love, Kadi Diallo finally tells the truth about herself and her son. My Heart Will Cross This Oceanis an extraordinary book—a girl’s story of desire and innocence, a wife’s story of defiance, a mother’s story of unbearable loss, and a woman’s story of unshakable strength and love.
My Heart Will Triumph
by Mirjana Soldo Sean Bloomfield Miki MusaMirjana Soldo was only 16 years old when she and five other children saw a mysterious woman on a hillside in the village of Medjugorje, then part of Yugoslavia. The woman 'who possessed a beauty and grace that seemed to come from beyond' identified herself as the Virgin Mary. The apparitions that began on the afternoon of June 24, 1981 would dramatically change Mirjana's life and the lives of countless people around the world. Her claims, however, brought the wrath of the Communist government down on Mirjana and everyone around her. Amazingly, the apparitions have continued for over 35 years. Millions of people travel to Medjugorje every year in search of answers to life's biggest questions. And, according to Mirjana, the Virgin entrusted her with ten secrets that foretell the future of the world--secrets that she will reveal within her lifetime.
My Heart's in the Heather
by Seon Manley[from inside flaps] "Growing up, Seon Manley says, is always a journey to a new country. In this delightful book, she tells a story of growing up in a Scottish-American colony in New York--a story rich in the glory of the past, in the hope of adolescence, and in the high good humor of a close-knit family and neighborhood. The Scots, who contributed so much to the development of our country, are vividly [portrayed in these pages, as the traditions, heritage, and wit of old Scotland come to terms with the excitement of a new life in the new world of the United States. Here you will find Papa, who was all Scot; Mama, who was all American; and two sisters, Seon and Gogo, who grew up to be well-known writers and anthologists. Perhaps this background is in some degree responsible for the author's rare and special understanding of young people, as well as for her gift of laughter that permeates the pages of My Heart's in the Heather."
My Heroes: Extraordinary Courage, Exceptional People
by Ranulph FiennesIn MY HEROES the 'world's greatest living explorer' (Guinness Book of Records), writes about the people who have inspired him - from explorers to policemen, families to freedom fighters.Wherever in the world Ranulph gives one of his lectures or motivational speeches, someone always asks: 'Who inspired you to do all the crazy things you've done?' For the first time he explores this idea by revealing his own personal heroes and what lessons their actions may have taught him in his own often hazardous profession.This book describes the extraordinary and often horrific events that led to these ordinary individuals becoming Ranulph's great heroes. From polar survivor to knifed-and-beaten policeman, from a woman missionary to a special forces soldier, these wonderful people will make you proud to be part of the human race.(P)2011 Hodder & Stoughton
My Heroes: Extraordinary Courage, Exceptional People
by Ranulph FiennesIn MY HEROES the 'world's greatest living explorer' (Guinness Book of Records), writes about the people who have inspired him - from explorers to policemen, families to freedom fighters. Wherever in the world Ranulph gives one of his lectures or motivational speeches, someone always asks: 'Who inspired you to do all the crazy things you've done?' For the first time he explores this idea by revealing his own personal heroes and what lessons their actions may have taught him in his own often hazardous profession.This book describes the extraordinary and often horrific events that led to these ordinary individuals becoming Ranulph's great heroes. From polar survivor to knifed-and-beaten policeman, from a woman missionary to a special forces soldier, these wonderful people will make you proud to be part of the human race.'Refreshingly different... this salute to mostly unsung heroes is an inspirational reminder of human goodness'. -Daily Mail 'Fiennes is making the case for a closer examination of the example set by the men and women he considers heroes'. The Times
My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering
by Martha HodesIn this moving and thought-provoking memoir, a historian offers a personal look at the fallibilities of memory and the lingering impact of trauma as she goes back fifty years to tell the story of being a passenger on an airliner hijacked in 1970.On September 6, 1970, twelve-year-old Martha Hodes and her thirteen-year-old sister were flying unaccompanied back to New York City from Israel when their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and forced to land in the Jordan desert. Too young to understand the sheer gravity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Martha coped by suppressing her fear and anxiety. Nearly a half-century later, her memories of those six days and nights as a hostage are hazy and scattered. Was it the passage of so much time, or that her family couldn’t endure the full story, or had trauma made her repress such an intense life-and-death experience? A professional historian, Martha wanted to find out.Drawing on deep archival research, childhood memories, and conversations with relatives, friends, and fellow hostages, Martha Hodes sets out to re-create what happened to her, and what it was like for those at home desperately hoping for her return. Thrown together inside a stifling jetliner, the hostages forged friendships, provoked conflicts, and dreamed up distractions. Learning about the lives and causes of their captors—some of them kind, some frightening—the sisters pondered a deadly divide that continues today. A thrilling tale of fear, denial, and empathy, My Hijacking sheds light on the hostage crisis that shocked the world, as the author comes to a deeper understanding of both what happened in the Jordan desert in 1970 and her own fractured family and childhood sorrows.
My History
by Antonia FraserThe acclaimed New York Times bestselling author shares vivid memories of her childhood and recalls the experiences that set her on the path to a writing life. Ever since she received Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall as a Christmas present in 1936, Antonia Fraser's profound love of history has been a constant in her remarkable life. The book made such an impression that it inspired her to write Mary, Queen of Scots thirty years later. Born into British aristocracy, the author's idyllic early childhood was interrupted by a wartime evacuation to North Oxford. The relocation had profound effects on her life, not the least of which was her education at a Catholic convent, and eventual conversion from the Protestant faith to Catholicism. Her memories of holidays spent at Dunsany Castle and Pakenham Hall, a stint as "Miss Tony" selling hats in a London department store, and her early days working in publishing are all told in her singular, irresistible voice. My History is truly a remarkable work, a personal and heartfelt memoir that is also a love letter to a British way of life that has all but disappeared. Anglophiles, history lovers, and Downton Abbey fans are sure to be enthralled.From the Hardcover edition.
My History
by Antonia FraserThe doyenne of the historical biography turns the spotlight on her childhood and early life. Antonia Fraser's memoir of growing up is not only an attempt to recapture the experiences of her Oxford childhood and youth--in Shakespeare's phrase, to "call back yesterday, bid time return." It is also a chronicle of the progress of her love of History since her first discovery of it as a private pleasure when she was a child in the 1930s--her history, as she believed it to be, for the study of History (as her books subsequently attest) has always been an essential part of the enjoyment of life. When Antonia received as a Christmas present a copy of Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall in 1936, it engendered a lifelong interest in History, firing her emotion to write the story that thirty years later became the globally bestselling Mary Queen of Scots. Antonia's mother, born Elizabeth Harman, was the daughter of a Harley Street doctor; her father, Frank Pakenham, was the second son of the Earl of Longford. With the coming of war, Antonia's happy childhood in the Sussex of Puck of Pook's Hill was succeeded by an evacuation to an Elizabethan manor house near Oxford, which had a profound effect on her imagination. A North Oxford upbringing, including life at the Dragon School, followed, and later a Catholic convent which she attended as a Protestant and emerged as a Catholic. In the meantime, holidays included adventures with relations in Anglo-Ireland at Dunsany Castle and Pakenham Hall, before rather less glamorous work experience as 'Miss Tony' in the hat department of a famous London store. After Oxford University came a job in publishing, a fortunate coincidence for one whose sole ambition was to write--and to write history. Her magical memoir, told with inimitable humour and style, is an unforgettable account of the making of a great narrative historian.
My History: A Memoir of Growing Up
by Antonia FraserThe acclaimed New York Times bestselling author shares vivid memories of her childhood and recalls the experiences that set her on the path to a writing life. Ever since she received Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall as a Christmas present in 1936, Antonia Fraser's deep love of history has been a constant in her remarkable life. The book made such an impression that it inspired her to write Mary, Queen of Scots thirty years later. Born into British aristocracy, the author's idyllic early childhood was interrupted by a wartime evacuation to North Oxford. The relocation had profound effects on her life, not the least of which was her education at a Catholic convent and her eventual conversion from the Protestant faith to Catholicism. Her memories of holidays spent at Dunsany Castle and Pakenham Hall, a stint as "Miss Tony" selling hats in a London department store, and her early days working in publishing are all told in her singular, irresistible voice. My History is a heartfelt memoir that is also a love letter to a British way of life that has all but disappeared. Anglophiles, history lovers, and Downton Abbey fans are sure to be enthralled.From the Hardcover edition.
My History: A Memoir of Growing Up
by Lady Antonia FraserThe childhood and early life memoir of Antonia Fraser, one of our finest narrative historians.Antonia Fraser's magical memoir describes growing up in the 1930s and '40s, but its real concern is with her growing love of history. A fascination that began with reading Our Island Story and her evacuation to an Elizabethan manor house at the beginning of the Second World War soon developed into an enduring passion, becoming, in her own words, 'an essential part of the enjoyment of life'.My History follows Antonia's relationship with her family: she was the eldest of eight children. Her parents Frank and Elizabeth Pakenham, later Lord and Lady Longford, were both Labour politicians. Then there are her adventures as a self-made debutante before Oxford University and a fortunate coincidence that leads to her working in publishing. It closes with the publication of her first major historical work, Mary Queen of Scots - a book that became a worldwide bestseller. Told with inimitable humour and style, this is an unforgettable account of one person's journey towards becoming a writer - and a historian.
My History Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography (Wisconsin studies in American Autobiography)
by Genaro M. PadillaLives are scattered on broken pages, faded, partially lost at the margins, suspended in language unread until there is a reader who opens the file and begins. It is my intention to initiate a recovery of that autobiographical formation that emerged after a war of conquest.