The changes that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 were particularly dramatic for East Germans. With the German Democratic Republic effectively taken over by West Germany in the reunification process, nothing in their lives was immune from change & upheaval: from the way they voted, the newspapers they read, to the brand of butter they bought. But what was it really like to go from living under communism one minute, to capitalism the next? What did the East Germans make of capitalism? & how do they remember the GDR today? Are their memories dominated by fear & loathing of the Stasi state, or do they look back with a measure of fondness & regret on a world of guaranteed employment & a relatively low cost of living? This is the story of eight citizens of the former German Democratic Republic, & how these dramatic changes affected them. All of the people in the book were born in East Germany after the Berlin Wall was put up in August 1961, so they knew nothing other than living in a socialist system when the GDR fell apart. Their stories provide a fascinating insight not only into everyday life in East Germany, but about how this now-vanished state is remembered today, a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall. ...

In Born Survivor
- which accompanies a brand new eight-part series for Channel 4
- Bear Grylls, the world`s ultimate survivor,

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Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, & Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant, & facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared, & with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives, & those of their unborn babies. That the gas chambers ran out of Zyklon-B just after the babies were born, before they & their mothers could be exterminated, is just one of several miracles that allowed them all to survive & rebuild their lives after World War II. Born Survivors follows the mothers` incredible journey
- first to Auschwitz, where they each came under the murderous scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave labour camp where, half-starved & almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; & finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish 17-day train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Hundreds died along the way but the courage & kindness of strangers, including guards & civilians, helped save these women & their children. Sixty-five years later, the three `miracle babies` met for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the liberation that ultimately saved them. United by their remarkable experiences of survival against all odds, they now consider each other ”siblings of the heart.” In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden brings all three stories together for the first time to mark their seventieth birthdays & the seventieth anniversary of the ending of the war. A heart-stopping account of how three mothers & their newborns fought to survive the Holocaust, Born Survivors is also a life-affirming celebration of our capacity to care & to love amid inconceivable cruelty.
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Want to save cash, your child`s imagination & possibly even the planet? This is the book you need. Packed with great photos of real families in the outdoors, Born to Be Wild contains easy-to-follow instructions for activities that require nothing more sophisticated than a small person`s imagination & access to a little outdoor space. Organised seasonally & then by material, it lets parents skip straight to Spring & then to ` Blossom`, ` Grass` or ` Earth` etc. according to their present need. Everything you need to engage in & create all of its hundreds of activities can be found in your kitchen cupboard. No expensive art supplies or outward-bound kit required. All you need is the ` Toolkit` listed at the front of the book. These ordinary household essentials include recycled food containers, scraps of paper, string, glue & an empty jar or two. Along the way Hattie Garlick talks to families, organisations, cultures & communities who have rebuilt their relationships with nature with extreme or inspiring results, & introduces scientists, psychologists & other experts who explain why nature matters in our kids` modern lives. ...

Joy & heartbreak combine in this bittersweet tale of a champion greyhound's journey through life
- & from owner to owner... The
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` Writing about yourself is a funny business... But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I`ve tried to do this.` -Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run In 2009, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl`s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That`s how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humour & originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger & darkness that fuelled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as ` The Big Bang`: seeing Elvis Presley`s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, & the rise of the E Street B&. With disarming candour, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, & shows us why the song ` Born to Run` reveals more than we previously realized. Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star`s memoir. This is a book for workers & dreamers, parents & children, lovers & loners, artists, freaks or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock & roll. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force & sweep. Like many of his songs (` Thunder Road`, ` Badlands`, ` Darkness on the Edge of Town`, ` The River`, ` Born in the U.S.A.`, ` The Rising`, & ` The Ghost of Tom Joad`, to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen`s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter & the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. ...

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl`s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That`s how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, & originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, & darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as ” The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley`s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, & the rise of the E Street B&. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, & shows us why the song ” Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized. Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star`s memoir. This is a book for workers & dreamers, parents & children, lovers & loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock & roll. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force & sweep. Like many of his songs (” Thunder Road, ” ” Badlands, ” ” Darkness on the Edge of Town, ” ” The River, ” ” Born in the U.S.A., ” ” The Rising, ” & ” The Ghost of Tom Joad, ” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen`s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter & the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. ...

Luxury collector`s hardback gift edition. Joy & heartbreak combine in this bittersweet tale of a champion greyhound`s journey through life, from owner to owner! ” The sack wasn`t just drifting gently along like everything else, it was turning of its own accord. There was definitely something inside it, struggling against the side of the plastic bag, kicking at it, squeaking & squealing in terror. He had no idea what it might be, only that it was alive & in danger of drowning.” When Patrick saves a litter of greyhound puppies from the canal, he can`t bear to hand them all over to the RSPCA. He pleads with his parents: couldn`t he just keep one of them? But nothing will convince them & Patrick cries himself to sleep -- only to be woken by a greyhound puppy licking his face! Patrick christens his puppy Best Mate, & that`s what he becomes. Patrick`s favourite thing is to watch Best Mate running at full stretch on the heath, a speeding bullet, a cheetah-dog. Until one day Best Mate is kidnapped by a greyhound trainer, & begins a new life as a champion race dog. Suzie, the greyhound trainer`s step-daughter, loves Best Mate on first sight & gives him a new name, Bright Eyes. But what will happen when he can`t run any more? ...

The Taliban have disappeared from Kabul`s streets, but the long shadows of their brutal regime remain. In his short life eleven-year-old Fawad has known more grief than most: his father & brother have been killed, his sister has been abducted, & Fawad & his mother, Mariya, must rely on the charity of family to eke out a h&-to-mouth existence. Then Mariya finds a position as housekeeper for a charismatic western woman, Georgie, & Fawad dares to hope for an end to their struggle. He soon discovers that his beloved Georgie is caught up in a dangerous love affair with the powerful Afghan warlord Haji Khan, a legendary name on the streets of Kabul. At first resentful of Haji Khan`s presence, Fawad learns that love can move a man to act in surprising ways, & an overwhelming act of generosity persuades him of the warlord`s good intentions. But even a man as influential as Haji Khan can`t protect Fawad from the next tragedy to blight his young life, a tragedy so devastating that it threatens to destroy the one thing Fawad thought he could never lose: his love for his country. ...

Born Wild is the extraordinary story of one man’s passion for lions & Africa. Tony Fitzjohn is a man who stands on the front line of African conservation, living & working with wild lions; loving them, protecting them & occasionally getting mauled by them... This book follows Tony’s dramatic biography from a London bad boy, through his 20-year apprenticeship with George Adamson of Born Free fame, to his enriching, dangerous & emotional life as a protectorate beacon for lions. His is a life of discovery & isolation outside of the civilization that most western-born people take for granted. Tony made it his life’s work to reintroduce animals into the wild in Kenya. When they prevented him from continuing & made him unwelcome in the country he loved, he & his family had to start anew in Tanzania. There, at Mkomazi, he & his family have created a new national park – & now the Kenyans want it back. ...