Mike Carney the oldest living native Blasket Islander was born on The Great Blasket Island off the southwest of Ireland in 1920. Raised under challenging circumstances in that unique isolated Irish-speaking community Mike left in 1937 to seek a better future in Dublin & eventually in America. The death on the island of his younger brother without a priest or doctor in 1947 set off a chain of events that led to its evacuation. Mike played a pivotal role in the evacuation personally lobbying Eamon de Valera to relocate the remaining Islanders living in increasingly desperate conditions. Joining the millions who emigrated from Ireland to the United States Mike settled in Springfield Massachusetts with other former islanders. While taking advantage of opportunities offered by his adopted country he never lost his love for the nation of his birth saying its like loving both parents. This is the story of his life & his efforts to promote Irish culture in America to preserve the memory of The Great Blasket to respect roots left behind & to set down roots in a new l&. Written as Mike approached the age of ninety-two this memoir is probably the last of a long line of books written by Blasket Islanders including Tomas OCrohan Micheal OSulleabhain & Peig Sayers. A first-person saga recounting one mans life but relating the experience of many it chronicles a lifetime devoted to family community & legacy. All the while he seems haunted by the immortal words of OCrohan: The likes of us will not be again. ...

U2 360degree by numbers 7 100 000 fans saw the show; 10 million people watched a live stream of U2 360degree at the Rose Bowl on You Tube; 320 000 fans saw 360degree in Mexico City; 9 760 guitar strings utilized; 7 100 miles
- approximate distance travelled by space station while talking with U2; 5 200 years
- collective touring experience of U2 tour personnel; 400 tons
- weight of the fully loaded claw; 134 crew members; 126 truck drivers; 110 concerts; 53 gigs attended by a single fan; & 7 astronauts attended. U2 360degree the most successful concert tour of all time came to an end in Moncton Atlantic Canada on July 30 2011. The massive 26 month undertaking by Live Nation Global Touring saw U2 play 110 concerts in front of more than 7.1 million fans in 30 countries across five continents. From the Ground Up" is the inside story of U2 360degree with exclusive contributions from the band manager Paul Mc Guinness world-renowned set designer Willie Williams & exclusive photographs from photographer Ralph Larmann & written by Dylan Jones who was given complete access including behind the scenes at Glastonbury 2011."


...

KYM MARSH is one of our most-loved stars but her life has been a rollercoaster ride through love laughter & tears. Now Kyms ready to tell her full story for the first time describing her difficult childhood growing up on a council estate in Wigan & struggling at school with bullying & an eating disorder. She describes falling in love at 17 & finding herself pregnant while still a teenager. By the time she was 21 she was a single mum with two very young children David & Emily & it was a real struggle to make ends meet. But Kym had always dreamt of performing & even though the odds were stacked against her she was determined to make her dream a reality. One day she auditioned for a new TV show called Popstars & her life changed forever. Kym now stars in the nations favourite soap Coronation Street. But her life off-screen hasnt been easy. She reflects on her marriage to Jack Ryder & how hard she tried to make it work. Kym found new love with Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas & after tragically losing their first baby Archie in 2009 the couple were over the moon to welcome little Polly Lomas into the world earlier this year. Entertaining funny & incredibly honest From the Heart is a fantastic read all about how sometimes the best things happen in life when you refuse to give up hope. ...

KYM MARSH is one of our most-loved stars but her life has been a rollercoaster ride through love laughter & tears. Now Kyms ready to tell her full story for the first time describing her difficult childhood growing up on a council estate in Wigan & struggling at school with bullying & an eating disorder. She describes falling in love at 17 & finding herself pregnant while still a teenager. By the time she was 21 she was a single mum with two very young children David & Emily & it was a real struggle to make ends meet. But Kym had always dreamt of performing & even though the odds were stacked against her she was determined to make her dream a reality. One day she auditioned for a new TV show called Popstars & her life changed forever. Kym now stars in the nations favourite soap Coronation Street. But her life off-screen hasnt been easy. She reflects on her marriage to Jack Ryder & how hard she tried to make it work. Kym found new love with Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas & after tragically losing their first baby Archie in 2009 the couple were over the moon to welcome little Polly Lomas into the world earlier this year. Entertaining funny & incredibly honest From the Heart is a fantastic read all about how sometimes the best things happen in life when you refuse to give up hope. ...

In From the Heart" Sandy Clark tells the story of his headline-grabbing career in football as a striker manager coach & now much-respected pundit. From his early days with his hometown team Airdrie Sandy Clark was a prolific scorer & notched more than 100 goals for the Diamonds. He caught the eye of both Sir Alex Ferguson & Celtic who tried to prise him away & was later named PFA Player of the Year before heading south to West Ham to star alongside Trevor Brooking Billy Bonds & Tony Cottee. Sandy reveals why he then returned to Rangers & how he helped a young Ally Mc Coist through those difficult early days before they went on to help the Light Blues to Skol Cup glory. He also reveals the pain & agony of the 1985-86 season when with Hearts he missed out on a league & Scottish Cup double. & he relives his Tynecastle memories from his derby day glories to Wallace Mercer asking him to value all the Hibs players ahead of his controversial attempt to buy their capital rivals. Sandy speaks openly about his own managerial stint at Tynecastle where he had to controversially sack Justin Fashanu & for the first time he talks about his heartbreak when Chris Robinson showed him the door & why he later turned down the chance to manage Hearts for a second spell. Clark tells all from his time at St Johnstone where he led them to third spot a cup final & back into Europe where they took on the might of Monaco & also lifts the lid on the drugs nightmare with George OBoyle & Kevin Thomas & how he believes it led to his eventual sacking. He went on to work under Jimmy Calderwood & Jimmy Nicholl at Dunfermline Kilmarnock & Aberdeen & says why he believes an Aberdeen legend was behind their controversial Pittodrie departure. Controversial honest & full of brand new anecdotes " From the Heart" is an unmissable football story." ...

The astonishing story of a young man's upbringing in a remote tribal village in Burma & his journey from his strife-torn country to the tranquil quads of Cambridge. In lyrical prose Pascal Khoo Thwe describes his childhood as a member of the Padaung hill tribe where ancestor worship & communion with spirits blended with the tribe's recent conversion to Christianity. In the 1930s Pascal's grandfather captured an Italian Jesuit mistaking him for a giant or a wild beast; the Jesuit in turn converted the tribe. (The Padaung are famous for their 'giraffe women'
- so-called because their necks are ritually elongated with ornamental copper rings. Pascal's grandmother had been exhibited in a touring circus in England as a 'freak'.) Pascal developed a love of the English language through listening to the BBC World Service & it was while working as a waiter in Mandalay to pay for his studies that he met the Cambridge don John Casey who was to prove his saviour. The brutal military regime of Ne Win cracked down on 'dissidents' in the late 1980s. Pascal's girlfriend was raped & murdered by soldiers & Pascal took to the jungle with a guerrilla army. How he was eventually rescued with Casey's help is a dramatic story which ends with his admission to Cambridge to study his great love English literature.
...

From the Links is a golf hall of fame shame & the arcane. Collected in this handsome volume are more than a hundred of golf's greatest moments
- from the famous to the long forgotten; from the links of Scotland in the 1800s to the 1938 US Open; from the 1954 US Women's Open to the 2010 Masters & even to the little known Martini Invitational in 1971
- & starring the giants of the game down to the struggling pros & amateurs. Told in whimsical fashion these are stories of triumph amazing holes-in-one & other feats hilarious gaffes classic matchups heart racing final rounds trailblazing careers monumental breakdowns & other incredible events no reader will ever forget: there's the story of Jack ' The Golden Bear' Nicklaus & Gary ' The Black Knight' Player being attacked by killer bees on a course in South Africa in 1966; the 1954 US Women's Open Championship won by the pioneering Babe Zaharias just one month after cancer surgery; the incredible sight of four holes-in-one on the same hole in under two hours in the 1989 US Open. Golf has a singular capacity to bring out the very best & the very worst in its many enthusiasts with all sorts of mishaps & high jinks colouring the space between tee & green. In From the Links Joshua Shifrin affectionately guides us through the rich tapestry of golfing history with tale after notorious infamous & beloved golfing tale.

...

From Pankaj Mishra author of the successful Temptations of the West" & " Butter Chicken in Ludhiana" comes a provocative account of how China India & the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image. The Victorian period viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing or humiliated the bankrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire it was clear that for Asia to recover a vast intellectual effort would be required. Pankaj Mishras fascinating highly entertaining new book tells the story of a remarkable group of men from across the continent who met the challenge of the West. Incessantly travelling questioning & agonising they both hated the West & recognised that an Asian renaissance needed to be fuelled in part by engagement with the enemy. Through many setbacks & wrong turns a powerful contradictory & ultimately unstoppable series of ideas were created that now lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to Al Qaeda from Indian nationalism to the Muslim Brotherhood. Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew through the eyes of the journalists poets radicals & charismatics who criss-crossed Europe & Asia & created the ideas which lie behind the powerful Asian nations of the twenty-first century." ...

Born Eileen Regina Edwards in 1965 in rural Canada Shania Twain has lived a life rife with triumph & tragedy. Aged two her parents had divorced & by early childhood her family of seven was often without food at times living in a filthy one bedroom apartment. When her mother & stepfather were tragically killed in an automobile accident when she was 22 Shania knew that the only way to lift her family out of poverty was to use her singing talent & become a full-time performer. Shania writes of being discovered her time performing in Nashville & her sudden dramatic rise to stardom. Shania will spare no details about her recent personal struggles & heartbreaks subjects about which she's never spoken publicly. This remarkable book is the story of a brave honest & genuine woman who faced odds & downfalls most people never experience yet has succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. ...

In 1970 Jerry Della Femina wrote this gossip-filled insiders account of working on Madison Avenue during the golden age of advertising. It caused a sensation became a bestseller & established itself as a cult classic. Years later it inspired the multi-award-winning drama Mad Men. ...