The Teacher of Auschwitz

Wendy Holden

At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the chimneys, they were given better food, kept free of vermin, and were even taught meditation to imagine full stomachs and a day without fear. The man who became their guiding light was a young Jewish prisoner named Fredy Hirsch.

I Give You My Heart: A True Story of Courage and Survival

Wendy Holden

An unlikely friendship between two couples leads to one of the most remarkable acts of selfless sacrifice when the Nazis invade their country. A teenage girl, guilty only of being Jewish, is saved from the fate that awaits her family and hidden by her parents' Catholic friends - who pay the ultimate price for their bravery. So much was risked and so much lost but the legacy of their courage and trust lives on through the surviving generations. Now, at last, their story can be told…

Captain Tom's Life Lessons

Captain Tom Moore

If Captain Tom's big heart and generosity of spirit helped see us through difficult days, this was his parting gift. Full of the wit, warmth and wisdom that made him so special, his reflections and guiding principles form a long life, well lived; Life Lessons will be a source of reassurance, hope, and encouragement for generations to come. And a reminder, whenever times are hard, that tomorrow will be a good day.

Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day: My Autobiography

Captain Tom Moore

Captain Tom Moore is an inspiration. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020 this 99-year-old Second World War veteran came up with a big idea: he'd walk as many laps of his garden as he could manage to raise money for the NHS. Despite using a walking frame as well as having recent treatment for cancer and a broken hip, he was determined to hit £1,000 by his 100th birthday three weeks later. By the time the telegram from the Queen arrived, he'd raised over £30 million...

The Cruelty of Beauty

Wendy Holden

A beautiful glassmaker. Two damaged men who love her. Set alternately in exotic Bohemia and in the wilderness of an English coast, it is a story of obsession and passion and fear…

A Woman of Firsts

Edna Adan Ismail

Imprisonment. Mutilation. Persecution. Edna Adan Ismail endured it all – for the women of Africa.

One Hundred Miracles

Zuzana Ruzickova

The remarkable memoir of Zuzana Ruzickova, Holocaust survivor and world-famous harpsichordist.

Born Survivors

Wendy Holden

Three women pregnant by their husbands.

Three couples praying for a brighter future.

Three babies, born within weeks of each other in the most horrendous of circumstances...

The Sense of Paper

Taylor Holden

Charlie, a war correspondent turned author, haunted by her worst journalistic experiences, turns to the history of paper and the materials of JMW Turner to distract her from the ghosts of her past. Her research brings her into contact with Alan, a highly successful artist and Turner scholar. She falls under his seductive spell, only to discover that Alan has plenty of ghosts of his own. A book rich in history and war, love and obsession, yet intertwined with a thriller’s mysterious undercurrent, this novel is designed to wrong-foot the reader time and again.

In the Name of Gucci

Patricia Gucci

The gripping family drama — and never-before-told love story — surrounding the rise and fall of the late Aldo Gucci, the man responsible for making the legendary fashion label the powerhouse it is today, as told by his daughter.

5 Minutes of Amazing

Chris Graham

This story poses a profound question - do we accept the hand that fate deals us, or do we battle to make the most of the life we have and help others in the process? Chris Graham, just 38 years old but already facing the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, has emphatically chosen the latter.

Uggie - My Story

Uggie

There comes a time in every Hollywood actor’s life when he has to put away his puppyish toys, curl up in his bed, and bark out his memoir. This is my story.

From my humble beginnings as a pound-bound hound, I was rescued by an acting coach and trained in the craft of Doggie Drama. After a few minor misdemeanours (including Cat-Gate and some best-forgotten squirrel spats), I settled into my new role as pin-up and bit-part player in B-list movies and commercials.

Haatchi & Little B - The UK No.1 Bestseller

Wendy Holden

On a bitterly cold night in January 2012, Haatchi the dog was hit over the head, and abandoned on a railway line to be hit by a train. The driver saw the adorable five-month old Anatolian Shepherd moments too late. Somehow, the terrified puppy survived the blood loss from his partially severed leg and tail and managed to crawl away to safety...

Mr Scraps

Taylor Holden

Inspired by the true story of a dog named Rip who was the first search-and-rescue dog during the Second World War, Mr. Scraps is a heartwarming story of courage, love and devotion that will appeal to parents and children alike.

The Beat of My Own Drum

Sheila E.

From the Grammy Award–nominated singer, drummer, and percussionist who has shared the stage with countless musicians and is renowned for her contributions throughout the music industry, a moving memoir about the healing power of music inspired by five decades of life and love on the stage.

Shell Shock: The Psychological Trauma of War

Wendy Holden

Shell Shock is the story of the mind at war. For centuries we have acknowledged the terrible physical effects of warfare, but it is only in the twenty-first century, with the significant changes in the nature of war and our attitude towards it, that we have begun to realize the profound psychological effects of sending individuals to the front line.

10 Mindful Minutes

Goldie Hawn

Driven by her commitment to the welfare of children and her life-long interest in the practice of mindfulness, Goldie Hawn established the Hawn Foundation to support and develop ways to help children become emotionally healthy and eager learners who can reach their full potential.

Lady Blue Eyes

Barbara Sinatra

Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing on the jukebox, Barbara Ann Blakely heard Frank Sinatra take the wedding vows that began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage.

In Lady Blue Eyes, she celebrates the husband she adored. For more than two decades, Barbara was by his side. From her own humble beginnings to her time as a model and her marriage to Zeppo Marx, Barbara Sinatra reveals a life lived with passion, conviction, and grace.

Journey to the Edge of the World

Billy Connolly

To have Billy Connolly as a personal tour guide through some of the world's most dramatic landscapes---from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the fabled Northwest Passage - is to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

With his idiosyncratic humour, Billy searches for the beauty of ordinariness and bumps into all manner of weird and wonderful people along the way, from the fiddle-playing scarecrow-maker to the septuagenarian pioneer who still lives as her ancestors did. He learns how not to be intimate with bears and how to pan for gold. He herds cattle, has a profound experience in a sweat lodge and attempts the finer complexities of the Inuit language. He jams with fellow musicians, kisses a cod and waxes lyrical about icebergs.

Tomorrow to be Brave

Susan Travers

“Wherever you go, I will go too.” These were the words Susan Travers spoke to General Koenig, the commander of the Free French and the Foreign Legion in North Africa during the Second World War, and the man with whom she was in love.

Her words were about to be tested to the limit. It was early spring 1942, and under the pitiless desert sky, the great siege of Bir Hakeim in Libya was about to begin. Surrounded for fifteen days and nights by Rommel’s Afrika Korps, outnumbered ten to one, pounded by wave after wave of Stuka and Heinkel bombers, Susan, the general and 2,000 men seemed doomed. Then, one moonless night, the French made an audacious bid for freedom. Speeding across the minefields of No-Man’s-Land towards Rommel’s deadly Panzer tanks, her foot hard on the accelerator, Susan led the convoy of men and vehicles away from Bir Hakeim. Hailed as the heroine of the night, in later life she was awarded the Military Medal and the Legion d’honneur.

Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles, 1974-2001

Don Felder

Don Felder was just a poor boy from Florida, but when he joined the Eagles he soared into the stratosphere. Alongside former bandmates Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, and Felder’s childhood friend Bernie Leadon, he sold tens of millions of records (Eagles: Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975 is the bestselling album of all time), performed before countless adoring fans, and co-wrote the renowned hit Hotel California. His guitar-playing ability lifted the band from mere popularity to iconic status. And now Don Felder finally breaks the Eagles’ decades of public silence to take fans behind the scenes - where drugs, greed and endless acrimony threatened to tear the band apart almost daily.

A Lotus Grows in the Mud

Goldie Hawn

In this candid, insightful and unconventional memoir, which was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, Goldie Hawn invites us to join her in an inspirational look back at the people, places, and events that have touched her. It is the spiritual journey of a heart in search of enlightenment.

With her trademark effervescence, Goldie delivers a personal look at private and powerful events that carried her through life: her father’s spontaneity; her mother’s courage; the joy of being a daughter, a sister, a parent, and a lover.

Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes

Deana Martin

I loved being called Deana Martin. Even when I was very small. Dad was such a positive influence on people’s lives that to be so closely associated with him was always a blessing. People can’t help but smile when they think of my father, which has to be the greatest legacy of all...."

So begins Deana Martin’s captivating and heartfelt memoir of her father, the son of an Italian immigrant from modest beginnings who worked his way to the top of the Hollywood firmament to become one of the greatest stars of all time.

Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany

Marthe Cohn

Marthe Cohn was in her late teens when Hitler was rising to power. Living across the German border in Alsace-Lorraine, her family began taking in Jews who were fleeing the Nazis, as well as the Jewish children being sent away by terrified parents. Soon her own homeland was under Nazi rule, and she and her parents, brothers and sisters were forced to live the restricted lives of all Jews. As the Nazi occupation of France escalated along with the war, Marthe’s sister was arrested and eventually sent to Auschwitz, and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army.

Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking

Pauline Prescott

Pauline Prescott's life story reads like a Catherine Cookson novel. From the death of her father to her brother’s life-threatening illness, little ‘Tilly’ Tilston experienced much sadness as a child. At sixteen, she found herself pregnant and alone.

Sent to a former convent, Pauline gave birth to a son Paul in 1956. Resisting all attempts to give him up for adoption, she struggled on for three years until she was finally persuaded it was for his own good. She never expected to see him again. As a young hairdresser, she fell in love with John Prescott, a dashing ship’s steward and union activist, never imagining that one day she’d be married to the Deputy Prime Minister---and know all his speeches off by heart.

The Full Monty

Wendy Holden

The Full Monty is a brilliant and original comedy about six men driven to face their fears of inadequacy and loss in hard times. Broke, out of work, and on the verge of losing their wives and children, they come up with a desperate, brilliant plan: to imitate the renowned Chippendales male dancers and strip for cash.

Till the Sun Grows Cold: Searching for my Daughter, Emma

Maggie McCune

Emma McCune was vibrant and beautiful when she went as an aid worker in 1989 to help children in war-torn Sudan. But her life changed dramatically when she fell in love with Riek Machar, a charismatic war lord in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), and married him in a simple bush ceremony. Despite her personal happiness and the devotion of Riek’s people, rifts between rival factions of freedom fighters put a price on her head. And at twenty-nine, when she was expecting their first child, her life was tragically cut short.

Footprints In The Snow: How Science Helped Turn Tragedy to Triumph

Julie Hill

In April 1990, Julie Hill broke her back in a car crash, paralysing her from the waist down. With immense personal courage, humour and an extraordinarily positive attitude she faced the terrible consequences of the accident and the new way of life it imposed on her. She volunteered to become the world’s first paraplegic to have a revolutionary electronic device implanted into her spine and attached to the nerves that control her leg muscles.

Waking Ned

Wendy Holden

Original novelisation of the hilarious comedy film about everyone’s dream – to win the lottery.

There are just fifty-two inhabitants of the small southern Irish village of Tullymore, so when retired farmer Jackie O’Shea learns by accident that one of them has won the lottery, he and his old friend Michael O’Sullivan decide it should not be too difficult to find the mysterious winner and share in their jackpot.

Central 822

Carol Bristow

‘Why not join the Metropolitan Police?’ A chance glance at the large poster pinned to a noticeboard outside Wembley Police Station in 1964 changed Carol Bristow’s life. Aged twenty-two, with eight dead-end jobs behind her, she knew there must be a world beyond the typewriter. Little did she know what the next thirty years would hold.

Biting the Bullet: Married to the SAS

Jenny Simpson

When Jenny Simpson married she joined a unique band of women – the SAS wives – and entered a world of secrecy and danger that few outside it could begin to imagine.

How many wives have to learn to live for months not knowing where their husband is, or what kind of danger he might be in – from IRA terrorists he is stalking, Argentinian or Iraqi soldiers, a faulty parachute or a dangerous training mission gone wrong? How many women could live a life in which they must check their car every morning for bombs, knowing that the IRA has their name and address? When every stranger might be an enemy and even neighbours don’t know their true identity?

Unlawful Carnal Knowledge: The True Story of the Irish 'X' Case

Wendy Holden

On a cold and inhsopitable night in December 1991, a 42-year-old married man forced himself on a 14-year-old girl and planted the seed that was to become the most controversial foetus in the whole of Irish history. The extraordinary case in the Irish High Court and the injunction to stop the distraught girl having an abortion became a cause célèbre for radicals, doctors and politicians.

But what was the anguished truth behind this tragic human story? How did one girl affect the course of Irish history, unwittingly precipitate a referendum and change the law?