Search Results for: true story

It is the night of 28 March 1942. Royal Navy and British commandos are poised to assault the German-held port of Saint-Nazaire in what will be one of the most audacious and daring raids of the Second World War. The plan is simple: to drive an old destroyer, packed with three tons of explosive, at full speed into the outer gate of the Normandie dock. The aim is to destroy the base from which the formidable battleship Tirpitz would be able to devastate the convoys supplying Britain from the United States.  ‘Operation Chariot’ was to be dramatically successful, but at a great cost. Fewer than half the men who went on the mission returned. In recognition of their valour, eighty-nine decorations were awarded, including five Victoria Crosses. 

Into the Jaws of Death is the true story of how the decisive courage of a small group of men changed the course of the war.

A chilling tale based on true events from the bestselling author of The Ghost Hunters – now a major ITV drama starring Rafe Spall

At the height of the Cold War, officials at the Ministry of Defence conducted a highly secret investigation into unusual events that occurred along a strip of rugged coastline within the Pembrokeshire National Park nicknamed ‘The Broad Haven Triangle’. The events made national headlines: lights and objects hovering in the sky, ghostly figures peering into farmhouse windows, cowering animals, and poltergeists plaguing a terrified family of witnesses.Thirty years later, official files pertaining to these occurrences were finally released for public scrutiny at the National Archives. The disclosure prompted a new witness to come forward to speak of what he knew. His testimony rocked the very foundations of the British Government. This is his story.

“This is an exquisitely interesting book. It’s a deeply serious one too and, for those like me who have little maths, it’s delightfully readable” – IAN MCEWAN

“Kit Yates is a natural storyteller. Through fascinating stories and examples, he shows how maths is the beating heart of so much of modern life. An exciting new voice in the world of science communication” – MARCUS DU SAUTOY

“Used wisely, mathematics can save your life. Used unwisely, it can ruin it. A lucid and enthralling account of why maths matters in everyone’s life. A real eye-opener.” – Prof Ian Stewart FRS, author of Do Dice Play God?
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Maths is the story of the world around us, and the wisdom it gives us can be the difference between success and disaster.

We are all doing maths all the time, from the way we communicate with each other to the way we travel, from how we work to how we relax. Many of us are aware of this. But few of us really appreciate the full power of maths – the extent to which its influence is not only in every office and every home, but also in every courtroom and hospital ward.

In this eye-opening and extraordinary book, Yates explores the true stories of life-changing events in which the application – or misapplication – of mathematics has played a critical role: patients crippled by faulty genes and entrepreneurs bankrupted by faulty algorithms; innocent victims of miscarriages of justice and the unwitting victims of software glitches. We follow stories of investors who have lost fortunes and parents who have lost children, all because of mathematical misunderstandings.

Along the way, Yates arms us with simple mathematical rules and tools that can help us make better decisions in our increasingly quantitative society. You will discover why it’s always sensible to question a statistic, often vital to ask for a second opinion and sometimes surprisingly handy to stick to the 37% rule…

Robert Johnson. Brian Jones. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Jim Morrison. Kurt Cobain. Amy Winehouse.

They were inspirational, controversial, talismanic and innovative. They lead lives full of myth, scandal, sex, drugs and some of the most glorious music that has ever heard. Though each of their lives were cut tragically short at the age of 27, they would all leave the world having changed it irrevocably.

Chris Salewicz tells, in intimate detail, the stories behind these compelling figures. From Robert Johnson and his legendary deal with the devil, to Jimi Hendrix appearing like a psychedelic comet on the London scene, through to Amy Winehouse’s blazing talent and her savage appetite for self-destruction.

Behind the most famous movie ever made is a tale of love, magic and one incredible woman

Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, for the screen, Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to visit the set.
Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book – because she’s the only one left who knows its secrets…

But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of ‘Over the Rainbow’, Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story, from her rebellious youth as a suffragette’s daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League, from her blossoming romance with Frank to the hardscrabble prairie years that inspired his famous work. With the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect her – the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy.


This richly imagined novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud.

JOIN SAS LEGEND PHIL CAMPION AS HE SHARES HIS DEEPLY PERSONAL LIFE STORY, WARTS AND ALL

In WHO DARES WINS Big Phil Campion reveals his chequered past, from terrible abuse suffered in a string of kids’ homes to psychological abuse suffered at a top public school.

Phil guides you through his soldiering career, from the so called “green army” to the brutal trial of SAS selection and all that followed. This includes years spent providing private military services across war-torn and risk-laden Africa; in between he was body-guarded the likes of Led Zep, Oasis, Kasabian, Dizzy Rascal and Pro Green.

Phil takes you on his gripping, behind-the-scenes adventure acting as a roving reporter for Sky TV in Syria and Northern Iraq, more often than not under fire.

Brave, riveting and truly revelatory, WHO DARES WINS is packed full of jaw-dropping stories to quicken the blood, while also telling of the psychological toll a life in conflict took on the author.

‘One of the best first-hand accounts of life in combat ever written’
Andy McNab on Born Fearless

‘I’m always wary of llamas. They’re mischievous and smart. I get a sense, when I approach them, that they are conferring . . . as if to say, ‘That’s that bloke off the telly.’

Bill Bailey has always had dogs in his life, including a Lakeland Terrier called Rocky who would travel with him in the van to his first shows and occasionally join him on stage. Fast forward a few decades and Bill shares his home with a variety of birds, dogs, frogs, chameleons, and an armadillo called Tommy. ‘We even had a giant chicken at the house for a while, a huge Malay cockerel, Kid Creole. After a few stand-offs he took against me. He had to go in the end, I was being stalked in my own back garden.’

That chicken apart, animals have always been at the heart of an extraordinary life as one of the nation’s favourite comedians, actors, musicians and (thanks to Strictly) dancers: from terriers to the orangutans of Sumatra and the parrots that share his breakfast every morning in west London.

As anyone who has ever had a pet knows, animals are a constant source of joy, but they also connect us to the world and to each other, touching on a deeper, older human need for companionship. Full of the leftfield humour, wit and wisdom that has made Bill Bailey such a beloved performer around the world, My Animals, and Other Animals is the story of Bill’s life, but more than that, it’s the story of how all of our lives are enriched by the animals who accompany us on that journey.

Praise for Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author Damien Lewis’ SAS mission series:

‘One of the great untold stories of WWII’ – Bear Grylls on SAS Ghost Patrol

‘The untold story’ – Daily Mail on SAS Nazi Hunters

‘A tale of bravery against desperate odds’ – Sunday Times on Churchill’s Secret Warriors

‘True adventures laced with staggering bravery and sacrifice’ – Sun on Hunting the Nazi Bomb

An impossible mission in wartime Italy: the next explosive bestseller from Damien Lewis.

In the hard-fought winter of 1944 the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, but stalled on the fearsome mountainous defences of the Gothic Line. Two men were parachuted in, in an effort to break the deadlock. Their mission: to penetrate deep into enemy territory and lay waste to the Germans’ impregnable headquarters.

At the eleventh hour mission commanders radioed for David ‘The Mad Piper’ Kilpatrick to be flown in, resplendent in his tartan kilt. They wanted this fearless war hero to lead the assault, piping Highland Laddie as he went – so leaving an indelible British signature to deter Nazi reprisals.

As the column of raiders formed up, there was shocking news. High command radioed through an order to stand down, having assessed the chances of success at little more than zero. But in defiance of orders, and come hell or high-water, they were going in.

‘You couldn’t make these stories up: yet they’re true, and Lewis does the memory of these extraordinary men full justice in a tale that is both heart-stopping and moving’ Evening Standard

‘Suicidal bravery, untold moral courage and awe-inspiring survival. An utterly compelling read’ Bear Grylls

From the bestselling author of true military classics ZERO SIX BRAVO, THE NAZI HUNTERS and CHURCHILL’S SECRET WARRIORS

In the Spring of 1940, as Britain reeled from defeats on all fronts and America seemed frozen in isolation, one fear united the British and American leaders like no other: the Nazis had stolen a march on the Allies towards building the atomic bomb. So began the hunt for Hitler’s nuclear weapons – nothing else came close in terms of priorities. It was to be the most secret war of those wars fought amongst the shadows. The highest stakes. The greatest odds.

Prior to the outbreak of the war the massive German chemicals conglomerate I.G. Farben – the future manufacturers of Zyklon-B, the gas used in the Nazi concentration camps – had started producing bulk supplies of deuterium oxide – heavy water – at the remote Norwegian plant of Vemork. This was the central target of three separate missions – Operations GROUSE, FRESHMAN and GUNNERSIDE – over the ensuing four years. As Churchill commented: ‘The actual facts in many cases were equal to the most fantastic inventions of romance and melodrama. Tangle with tangle, plot and counter-plot, ruse and treachery, cross and double-cross, true agent, false agent, double agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party were interwoven in a texture so intricate as to be incredible yet true.’

Damien Lewis’s new bestseller intercuts the hunt for the scientists, the raw materials and the plant, with the cloak and dagger intelligence game being played in the shadows. This relied in part on ENIGMA intercepts to guide the SOE’s hand. Lewis delves into some of the most extraordinarily inventive and Machiavellian innovations at the SOE, and their related research and training schools, whereby the enemy were tricked, deceived, framed, blackmailed and double and triple-crossed, all in the name of stopping the Reich from getting the bomb.

One of the most remarkable stories in the history of Special Forces’ operations – Daily Express

In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, wartime leader Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard.

He recruited a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become the first ‘deniable’ secret operatives behind enemy lines, offering these volunteers nothing but the potential for glory and all-but-certain death.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare tells of the daring victories for this small force of ‘freelance pirates’ in their many missions against the Nazis, often dressed in enemy uniforms and breaking all previously held rules of warfare.

Master storyteller and military historian Damien Lewis brings the true adventures of the secret unit to life, from their earliest missions to the death of the group’s leader just weeks before the end of World War Two.

There is one great love in everyone’s life.

For Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita, hers was a Romanov cousin, a member of the doomed Russian royal family. Her father is Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s second son. Her mother is Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II. Ducky seems doomed to be a pawn on her grandmother’s dynastic chessboard.

But Ducky is not so easily controlled. In an era when death is considered preferable to divorce she fights for the freedom to be with the true love of her life. From disgraced exile in Paris to the glitter of St Petersburg and the mud and carnage of the Eastern Front, she forges her own path.

As Russia descends into the chaos of 1917 and the Romanov dynasty falters, Ducky is right at the heart of events.

Exiled once more, she tells us her story.

From star of Great British Bake Off, heart-wrenching romantic fiction about a scandalous love affair between a professional cook and a high-ranking politician. If exposed it could wreck both their careers.

Kate is thirty-six and mother to five-year-old Toby. She has a thriving business catering for private clients and her life is on an even keel. That is, until she gets a job cooking lunch at the Foreign Office and has her first fateful meeting with Oliver Stapler, Secretary of State. He’s powerful and charismatic, but also married and a father. He’s totally out of bounds but she falls for him.

When a journalist spots them together, he alerts the gutter press. Who cares whether Kate’s affair with Oliver is true or not? It’s a great story and will sell a ton of newspapers – and destroy several lives in the process.

Here, for the first time, is an intimate and fascinating portrait of Rudolf Nureyev off-stage – a man who was an exacting, unpredictable, parsimonious and often immature individual, yet who, at the same time, aroused great affection in a host of friends.

Simon Robinson frankly recalls his eventful year working for Nureyev. He did everything for this hopelessly impractical dancer except be his lover, much to Nureyev’s disappointment. It was the Russian’s insatiable sexual appetite that eventually destroyed him.

Nureyev had six houses on three continents but no staff in any of them and he couldn’t cook, drive, write a letter, tie a necktie or even change a light bulb. In 1990 Simon Robinson, until then professional crew on a racing yacht, became his PA. For the next twelve months they travelled from the Caribbean to America to Europe, living in luxury in Nureyev’s New York and Paris apartments and in spartan isolation on his tiny Mediterranean island.

Nureyev’s explosive nature was exhausting to live with and many times during their year together Robinson nearly quit – and Nureyev nearly sacked him. It didn’t happen, however, because Nureyev needed his PA’s calm reliability to ballast his own rocky life, and because Robinson knew that genius must make its own rules.

Jim Morrison, musician, singer and poet was found dead, the victim of a suspected heroin overdose, in a Paris apartment bathtub in 1971. He was 27.

Morrison was a talented, charismatic, wild-tempered cultural cipher. He struggled to cope with his exalted status and his death, officially from heart failure, remains shrouded in mystery.

In 27: Jim Morrison, acclaimed music critic Chris Salewicz pays homage to Morrison as a rock icon, whilst acknowledging the dark side of this conflicted character.

It is the sixth title in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Kurt Cobain, 27: Jimi Hendrix and 27: Janis Joplin.

Brian Jones, multi-instrumentalist, visionary and the ‘golden boy of the ’60s’, was, at the age of 27, the first rock casualty of his generation.

A strange, somewhat impenetrable character, Brian Jones was a founding member and guiding spirit of The Rolling Stones. Adored and misunderstood in equal measure, Jones was perhaps the most creatively ambitious cultural force of his time, an artist whose commitment to the experimental and exotic remains profoundly influential.

Always unconventional, Jones’s voracious appetite for life’s extremes led to unparalleled debauchery, drug and alcohol fuelled paranoia, and ultimately personal ruin.

27: Brian Jones is the third in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Jimi Hendrix, 27: Jim Morrison and 27: Kurt Cobain.

Janis Joplin, singer-songwriter, counterculture icon, the Queen of rock and roll, died aged just 27. During a short four-year career, blighted by alcoholism and drug abuse, she changed the face of music, carving out opportunities for a generation of female talent. Her powerful, raw vocals touched fans of folk music, blues and soul alike, with recordings such as ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, ‘To Love Somebody’ and ‘Mercedes Benz’ widely recognized as classics of their era.

In 27: Janis Joplin acclaimed author Chris Salewicz examines Joplin’s troubled and unconventional existence, and explains her profound musical influence. This is the fifth in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Kurt Cobain, 27: Brian Jones, and 27: Jimi Hendrix.

James Marshall ‘Jimi’ Hendrix is the most famous and perhaps the most innovative guitarist in music history. He died aged 27.

In this thought-provoking mini-biography, acclaimed author Chris Salewicz attends not just to Hendrix’s virtuoso skill, but also to his enigmatic and unpredictable character. He explores Hendrix’s status as psychedelic talisman and fashion icon, detailing the attitude and style that informed his legend.

27: Jimi Hendrix paints an intimate portrait of a man struggling with fame and substance abuse while mesmerizing the world.

27: Jimi Hendrix is the fourth in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Kurt Cobain, 27: Brian Jones, and 27: Jim Morrison.

Robert Johnson was, according to Eric Clapton, “the most important blues singer that ever lived.” An itinerant street musician, with a weakness for whisky and women, his is a life of pure legend – the man who sold his soul for the devil, and thereby invented modern music.

Precious little is known about his 27 years, or the circumstances of his death, and even the site of his grave is contested. In this mini-biography, acclaimed music critic Chris Salewicz investigates the truth behind the myth, evoking an incisive profile of an enigmatic figure who, with just 29 songs, changed popular music for ever.

27: Robert Johnson is the final part of a series of short music ebooks. Other titles in the series include 27: Brian Jones, 27: Jimi Hendrix, 27: Janis Joplin, 27: Jim Morrison, 27: Kurt Cobain and 27: Amy Winehouse.

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana frontman, died aged just 27. In this insightful mini-biography, respected music critic Chris Salewicz examines Cobain’s journey from sensitive loner to generational icon. Salewicz scrutinizes Cobain’s tormented inner life, his tempestuous relationship with Courtney Love, and the importance of his cultural legacy.

27: Kurt Cobain is the second in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Jimi Hendrix, 27: Jim Morrison and 27: Janis Joplin.

An essential introduction to the most significant poems and their works since 1900

Reproduced within this collection are some of the greatest poems of the 20th century, featuring works from major writers such as T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath to Langston Hughes and W.B. Yeats. For each, Michael Schmidt provides an insight into their themes and the background to their work, opening for the reader a deeper understanding and enjoyment of these extraordinary poems.

Poets include:
W.B. Yeats
Robert Frost
Edward Thomas
Philip Larkin
T.S. Eliot
Ted Hughes
Langston Hughes
Sylvia Plath
C.S Sisson
Derek Walcott
Ezra Pound
& many more!

Everyone loves Toff and she has come a long way since bursting onto our screens on E4’s Made in Chelsea in 2014. As the runaway winner of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here 2017, Toff surprised us all, not least herself, with her positive, happy-go-lucky attitude and kindness to others, no matter what challenge came her way in the jungle.

In ALWAYS SMILING, Toff is here to share her experiences, some funny, some sad, some that make her cringe with embarrassment. So whether it is friendships, family dramas, heartbreak and relationships, or how she coped with living her life in front of millions of viewers of Made in Chelsea, Toff reveals how she has learnt to keep a smile on her face, whatever life throws at her.

Told with her trademark honesty, humour and endless sense of fun, ALWAYS SMILING is a must-have for any fan.