I am proud of who I am & what I am. I teach my children to be proud too. Because being a traveller means everything to me. It's not just a label it goes much deeper. It's an identity that is burned into my heart.' Paddy Doherty loves his life as an Irish traveller but as a child he felt like an outsider. He was different to his siblings. On the rare occasions he went to school he was bullied. & beyond the gates of the camp he found nothing but hostility. Slowly Paddy's hurt turned into anger & by the age of 11 he had started out on an illustrious career as a bare-knuckle boxer. This earned him a position as one of the most well-respected (and feared) men in the travelling community. Yet while he won countless brutal fights in the ring the real battles he faced were very much outside. In this deeply honest autobiography he tells of how he has loved & lost five children; plummeted to seven stone while battling depression drink & drugs. He describes how it feels to be shot point-blank in the head & the lengths he'll go to to protect his people. Told with all the warmth & humour he is famed for Paddy's rich & colourful story is one that will stay with you for a long time to come. ...

'I fight hard & love strong. I'm a traveller.' Paddy Doherty loves his life as an Irish traveller but as a child he felt like an outsider. He was different to his siblings. On the rare occasions he went to school he was bullied for being a gypsy boy. & beyond the gates of the camp he found nothing but hostility. Slowly Paddy's hurt turned into anger & by the age of 11 he had started out on an illustrious career in bare-knuckle fighting. This earned him a position as one of the most well-respected (and feared) men in the travelling community. Yet while he won countless contests in the ring the real battles he faced were very much outside. In this deeply honest autobiography he tells of how he has loved & lost five children; plummeted to seven stone while battling depression drink & drugs. He describes how it feels to be shot point-blank in the head & the lengths he'll go to to protect his people as well as life since My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" & " Big Brother". Told with all the warmth & humour he is famed for Paddy's rich & colourful story is one that will stay with you for a long time to come." ...

The first book in the bestselling Dan ' Spider' Shepherd series. Dan ' Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied cheated & conned in order to bring Britain's most wanted criminals to justice. But when a powerful drugs baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison a world where one wrong move will mean certain death. As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. & that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls & hitting Shepherd where it hurts most. ...

Laurence Valentine Lloyd
- Larry Lloyd
- was one of the toughest most uncompromising players in his heyday. His strength & battle-hardened

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I can assure you that notorious criminals were not the goody-goody types some writers make them out to be. Forget the Robin Hood syndrome face up to reality
- they were evil bastards." Don Smith was a regular soldier & later a prison officer for twenty-five years. Both occupations were good to him. He travelled the world & ended his career as a senior prison officer at HM Prison Parkhurst. He met both the Hard Men & the Jelly Babies."
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Using a golf pencil sharpened on a cell wall Shaun Attwood wrote one of the first prison blogs Jons Jail Journal excerpts of which were published in The Guardian & attracted international media attention. Brought up in England Shaun took his business degree to Phoenix Arizona where he became an award winning stockbroker & then a millionaire day trader during the dot-com bubble. But Shaun also led a double life. An early fan of the rave scene in Manchester he formed an organisation that threw raves & distributed Ecstacy. Before being convicted of money laundering & drug dealing he served 26 months in the infamous jail system run by the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Hard Time is the harrowing yet often darkly humorous account of the time Shaun spent submerged in a nightmarish world of gang violence insect infested cells & food unfit for animals. His remarkable story provides a revealing glimpse into the tragedy brutality comedy & eccentricity of prison life. ...

A damning indictment of Utilitarianism & the dehumanising influence of the Industrial Revolution Charles Dickenss Hard Times" is edited with an introduction & notes by Kate Flint in " Penguin Classics". In " Hard Times" the Northern mill-town of Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind school headmaster & model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils & family with facts he bans fancy & wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman & bully of humanity Mr Bounderby & his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling & robbery. & as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe & victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool Gradgrind is eventually forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of materialism & machinery. This edition of " Hard Times" is based on the text of the first volume publication of 1854. Kate Flints introduction sheds light on the frequently overlooked character interplay in Dickenss great critique of Victorian industrial society. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books including " Oliver Twist" " Great Expectations" "A Tale of Two Cities" " David Copperfield" & " The Pickwick Papers" have been adapted for stage & screen & read by millions. If you enjoyed " Hard Times" you might like Dickens " Bleak House" also available in " Penguin Classics". "A masterpiece...a completely serious work of art". (F.R. Leavis)." ...

Unusually for Dickens Hard Times is set not in London but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories downtrodden workers & polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind & the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby. However human joy is not excluded thanks to Mr Slearys Horse-Riding circus a gin-soaked & hilarious troupe of open-hearted & affectionate people who act as an antidote to all the drudgery & misery endured by the ordinary citizens of Coketown. ...

This edition of Dickens tenth novel set in the industrial Midlands is that of the 1854 first edition. It has been re-edited in the light of scholarly findings made since 1990. Annotations have been revised & expanded. Sections on backgrounds sources & contemporary reactions include material on industrialism education & utilitarianism. The criticism section

Includes:: 17 essays on the novel seven of which are new to this edition.

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Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind school headmaster & model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils & family with facts he bans fancy & wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman & bully of humanity Mr Bounderby & his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling & robbery. & as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe & victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool Gradgrind is eventually forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of materialism & machinery. ...