Search Results for: true story

‘I have always been fascinated by that charismatic hero of the Resistance, Josephine Baker, but it turns out I didn’t know the half of it. Lewis’ story-telling blew my mind. Again.’ – Dan Snow

‘A story of incredible bravery in the face of tyrants who invaded a free and democratic nation, this will have powerful resonance today.’ – Tim Spicer

During WW2, Josephine Baker, the world’s richest and most glamorous entertainer, was an Allied spy in Occupied France. This is the story of her heroic personal resistance to Nazi Germany.

Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music hall diva renowned for her singing and exotic dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the most highly-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all ‘negroes and Jews’. Yet, instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight she went from performer to Resistance spy.

In The Flame of Resistance best-selling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little known history of the famous singer’s life. During the years of the war, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers – a cover for her spying work– she participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served: the US, the nation of her birth; France, the land that embraced her during her adult career; and Britain, the country from which she took her orders, as one of London’s most closely-guarded special agents. Baker’s secret war embodies a tale of unbounded courage, passion, devotion and sacrifice, and of deep and bitter tragedy, fueled by her own desire to combat the rise of Nazism, and to fight for all that is good and right in the world.

Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, revealing that her mark on history went far beyond the confines of the stage.

‘An eye-opening, pulse-quickening history. Josephine Baker led a wartime double life of extraordinary jeopardy and Damien Lewis’s needle-sharp narrative is jagged with suspense. Yet he also writes with great warmth and sensitivity, creating a powerfully moving portrait of a woman who fought prejudice and hate in all its forms.’ – Sinclair McKay

‘A gripping true story of a remarkable heroine. The details of Josephine Baker’s espionage for the Deuxieme Bureau, the French military intelligence agency during the war, make for a fascinating read in Damien Lewis’s meticulously researched account’ – Deborah Cadbury

‘Warm, funny, and bursting with heart’ Rebecca Serle

‘Beautiful, moving, hopeful’ Emily Stone

Greta James is adrift. Literally.

Just after the sudden death of her mother – her most devoted fan – and weeks before the launch of her high-stakes second album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing. Greta’s career is suddenly in jeopardy – the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always warned her about.

Months later, Greta – still heartbroken and very much adrift – reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian who is struggling with a major upheaval in his own life.

In this unlikeliest of places – at sea and far from the packed venues where she usually plays – Greta must finally confront the heartbreak she’s suffered, the family hurts that run deep, and how to find her voice again.

‘Gorgeous, heartfelt’ Amanda Eyre Ward

‘Moving and beautiful’ 5* reader review

‘Thoughtful and tender and true’ Janelle Brown

‘Full of warmth, heart and music’ 5* reader review

‘Filled with music, passion, and love of all kinds’ Jill Santopolo

‘Wonderful, inspiring and delightful’ 5* reader review

‘A total delight!’ Christine Pride

‘A heartwarming story reminding you to really live’ 5* reader review

‘Full of hope . . . vibrant’ Linda Holmes

A new book that will inspire children, by the global bestselling author of Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different.

The words in Dare to be Different have great power.

Ben Brooks has brought together 100 people who have all in some way or another used words to do wonderful things. Some may have changed a single life, while others have changed the course of history for almost everyone on earth. But whether their effects were big or small, these individuals’ speeches, letters, poems, songs, stories, and advice prove one thing: words can make the world a better place. And they can make you feel better about yourself too.

This extraordinary compendium includes personal letters that were written for just one reader to help guide them through life’s journey; sometimes they were intended for millions of people to hear about grand declarations of war, peace or new discoveries. Most of the time, though, they are words of wisdom that children will love to hear, about kindness, bullying, or whether it’s OK to sometimes eat chocolate for breakfast.

From Plautus’ plays about the power of laughter to Selena Gomez’s speech about bullying; and from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s letters of encouragement to his daughter, Scottie, to Bambi, the mysterious graffiti artist who sprays words of truth on walls, there is something to be learned from every quote in this inspiring and illuminating book.

Children will be enthused and comforted by the wonderful true stories Brooks has brought from across history and from around the world. Each one is exquisitely illustrated by Quinton Winter, who made the Stories for Boys series so visually exciting.

‘An incredible story, and so well told’ Bear Grylls

‘Honesty, integrity and real experience that puts you in the thick of the action.’ Billy Billingham

There were three patrols that fateful January 1991 morning: Bravo One Zero, Bravo Two Zero and Bravo Three Zero. It was the opening hours of the Gulf War and the SAS were flown deep behind enemy lines to hunt down Saddam’s Scud missiles, the use of which threatened a Third World War.

The men of Bravo One Zero stepped off the chopper, took one look at the flat desert devoid of any cover and decided no way were they deploying into all of that. But Andy NcNab’s famed Bravo Two Zero patrol did deploy, with fatal results – all bar one being captured or killed.

And then there was Bravo Three Zero. These men were different. Thought differently. Acted differently. Treating as gospel the SAS’s saying ‘any fool can be uncomfortable’, they deployed with vehicles, and while there was nowhere to hide they could make a dash for the border if desperate.

Even as warnings came in that McNab’s patrol was on the run, Bravo Three Zero remained undetected – the furthest Coalition forces behind Iraqi lines. Slipping through enemy positions, a string of targets were taken out. But with the desert turning bitter and snow starting to fall, they were forced to fight a running battle against the elements as much as the enemy.

Though overshadowed by the fate of Bravo Two Zero, the achievements of this highly-decorated patrol are the stuff of elite forces legend. Now, for the first time, SAS veteran Des Powell reveals their story in gritty, blow-by-blow detail. Written with acclaimed military author Damien Lewis, this is a tale of edge-of-the seat daring deep inside enemy lands. Brutal, savage, unrelenting – prepare to be blown away, in a tale that proves utterly the SAS motto – who dares wins.

‘You could not ask for a more eloquent guide than this book. Essential’ Sathnam Sanghera

An eye-opening book about how societies are designed to support those in power, at the expense of those without it.

COLONIAL POWER
In the 1950s, over 10,000 Kenyans were killed by the British during the Mau Mau uprising against a government determined to install a sympathetic post-independence regime and continue to exploit the resources of its former colonies.

PATRIARCHAL POWER
After the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic systematically removed freedoms from women, relegating them to second-class citizens in the name of religious teachings.

EDUCATIONAL POWER
There have been fifty-seven prime ministers of the United Kingdom, of whom forty-three have been privately educated, creating a society built by and for the privileged.

These are just some of the stories through which Dr Jack Davy illustrates the key factors that allow societies to create and sustain oppressive systems. Some are historical. Others have played out right before our eyes over the last decade. All are rooted in the systems in which we all participate. Read this book, and take action.

‘Sharp and insightful. Jack Davy makes complex ideas accessible in this powerful book about the roots of inequality’ Caroline Dodds Pennock, author of On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

‘A deeply humane book with true hope in its message’ Ray Mattinson, Blackwells

In the summer of 1944, the SAS were charged with the most crucial D-Day missions, taking on the might of the Nazi Reich deep behind enemy lines. Facing Hitler’s armoured legions – his fearsome Panzer divisions – with little more than raw courage and their nimble Willys jeeps, it would take maverick thinking and unconventional warfare in the extreme to survive and overcome. Hunted at every turn, theirs would become a bitter struggle to topple the dark power wielded from Berlin.

Increasingly, the war to seize The Fatherland would descend into a bitter and bloody struggle waged between the Nazi Fuhrer, and those he believed hunted him and his most senior commanders – Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne’s SAS. No greater courage can be written, nor unconventional soldiering envisaged, than that evidenced by these renegade warriors as they dared all to bring the war to its final blood-soaked close.

In the summer of 1943, the largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers, the Royal Navy warship carrying them bearing the iconic winged dagger emblem on its prow, plus the motto ‘Who Dares Wins’. Led by the legendary SAS commander Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, these war-bitten, piratical raiders were tasked to do the impossible – to bludgeon their way through the most heavily defended enemy shoreline, so enabling the ensuing forces to follow on.

If they succeeded, it would mark the turning point in the war. If they failed, the consequences were unthinkable. Against all odds, outnumbered some fifty-to-one, and facing a ferocious series of cliffside defences, they would have to dare all as never before. So begins the incredible true story of the SAS’s mission to liberate Europe. Replete with surprise, shock, action, heroic endeavour and glory, not to mention subterfuge, treachery and dismay, this is a classic combination of combat writing and breath-taking narrative non-fiction.

‘Absolutely gripping from the word go’ Alexis Conran, Times Radio

‘A convincing insight into the terror and adrenaline rush of war’ Mail on Sunday

Damien Lewis’s new bestseller tells the action-packed, riveting story of the band of mavericks and visionaries who made the SAS. Using hitherto untold stories and new archival sources, Damien Lewis follows one close-knit band of warriors from the SAS foundation through to the Italian landings – chronicling the extraordinary part they played as the tide of the Second World War truly turned in the Allies’ favour.

This is a narrative of wall-to-wall do-or-die action and daring, chronicling the exploits of some of the most highly-decorated soldiers of the twentieth-century.

‘A new book by historian Damien Lewis … who has read through the letters, diaries and reports kept by the Mayne family and conducted interviews with its surviving members over the past ten years’ Danielle Sheridan, Daily Telegraph

‘Read more about the characters as seen in SAS Rogue Heroes in Damien Lewis’s book SAS Brothers In Arms‘ Ed Cullinane, SWNS

‘Damien Lewis, bestselling author, describes the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Mayne and, it seems strange to say, the humanity of Mayne … Brilliant’ Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live

‘The depth of research is astounding’Belfast Telegraph

Tender, moving, heartfelt and warm (and sporadically scandalous and outrageous too), these are the private messages between people in love. Yet they are also correspondence between the rulers of nations.

From Henry VIII’s lovelorn notes to Anne Boleyn and George IV’s impassioned notes to his secret wife, to Queen Victoria’s tender letters to Prince Albert and Edward VIII’s extraordinary correspondence with Wallis Simpson – these letters depict romantic love from its budding passion to the comfort and understanding of a long union (and occasionally beyond to resentment and recrimination), all set against the background of great affairs of state, wars and the strictures of royal duty.

Here is a chance to glimpse behind the pomp and ceremony, the carefully curated images of royal splendour and decorum, to see the passions, hopes, jealousies and loneliness of kings and queens throughout history. By turns tender, moving, heartfelt and warm (and sporadically scandalous and outrageous too), these are the private messages between people in love. Yet they are also correspondence between the rulers of nations, whose actions (and passions) changed the course of history, for good and bad.

This morning I received your dear, dear letter of the 21st. How happy do you make me with your love! Oh! my Angel Albert, I am quite enchanted with it! I do not deserve such love! Never, never did I think I could be loved so much. Queen Victoria to Prince Albert (28 November 1839)

From one of Britain’s best-loved comedians comes this wonderfully funny, sharp and touching memoir and a celebration of the bond between man and dog – an autobidography, if you will.

‘I loved The Lick of Love. It’s often insightful, sometimes hilarious, frequently filthy – I’m a cat person, but if anything were ever to convince me to get a dog, it would be this’ Joanne Harris

‘. . . wise and perceptive, and funny and moving. Each dog you meet marks a different chapter of your life and Julian writes about it so BEAUTIFULLY’ Joanna Cannon

‘A quirky and witty excavation of memory lane in the company of his furry canine friends’ Dame Joan Collins

The Lick of Love takes us on a tour of Julian’s colourful life – and wherever life has taken him, Julian has had a dog by his side. Fanny the Wonder Dog, who came into Julian’s life when he was somewhat adrift, propelled him up the ranks of the alternative comedy circuit and onto television. Valerie, the whippet cross-breed escorted Julian through his forties, the Germaine Greer to his Bernard Manning. Albert, a jaunty geezer type who was sent to acclimatise Julian to middle age and helped him seduce his now husband, before being joined by naughty but nice Gigi, an unpredictable fur bullet of a dog. These canine characters have been there, bearing witness, on and off stage.

Whether writing about encounters in seedy London nightclubs, finding success on television with Sticky Moments, the death of his partner, that Normant Lamont joke, a narrow squeak with a thwarted eastern European plot to kidnap him, his move to the country, or finally settling down, falling in love and getting married, Julian’s unique voice bounces off the page. Ultimately, The Lick of Love is the story of a fascinating life and a love letter to the dogs that have played a loving and near constant part of it. Told with humour and great honesty, this promises to be one of the best memoirs of the year.

‘Whatever else is going on, it is the water bowl in the kitchen, the dog hair on my jumper, the knowing gaze from the dog in the basket beside me that comforts me and tells me that all is well.’ JC

‘This book should be mandatory reading for all young people’ – Pragya Agarwal

‘I wish this book had been around when I was a kid. . . If every child read it, the world would be transformed. This book will make the world a much better place for all of us’ – Mikaela Loach

‘Full of knowledge, cultural reference points and practical guidance, I will absolutely be referring to this in my own anti-racism journey and encourage others to do so too’ – Jeffrey Boakye
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Me and White Supremacy has sold over 150,000 copies and was shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Book of the Year award at the British Book Awards. Now, with this YA edition, Layla will help younger readers to feel more confident talking about white supremacy and antiracism. Layla gives them the knowledge and practical tools they need to help change the world, now and for the generations that come after them.

Me and White Supremacy became one of the most talked about books of 2020. It isn’t just a book that you read, it is a book that you do, and it has the power to make you question the world you live in whilst giving you the tools to do something to change it. In this Young Adult edition, Layla has completely reworked the original to address readers of 11+ and of all races to help them explore and better understand racism. The book is based on the understanding that it is important for all young people to understand these topics, so they can grow into adults who know how to have conversations about race and racism as well as how to work together collectively to create an antiracist world.

Like the original book, this edition guides readers through the different concepts that contribute to white supremacy and explores how they can help dismantle it to create a fairer world. It is written in such a way that it can be worked through together as a group, in class, or individually, and over any period of time.

Banish boredom with this bumper book of perfectly pitched puzzles for the whole family to enjoy.

Fear not, The Great Big Indoor Family Puzzle Book has self-isolation, rainy days and long school holidays covered with over 200 puzzles suitable for 12 to 120-year-olds.

Jam-packed with mazes, dot-to-dot, picture puzzles, sudoku, word games and much, much more, discover hours of entertainment between these pages. The puzzles will give little and large brains a workout (and provide precious moments of household calm).

Pencils at the ready, as you work your way together towards the solution.

‘A delicate novel, finely judged and full of insight’ Hilary Mantel

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA GOLD CROWN AWARD 2023


One Wednesday morning in November 1912 the ageing Thomas Hardy, entombed by paper and books and increasingly estranged from his wife Emma, finds her dying in her bedroom. Between his speaking to her and taking her in his arms, she has gone.

The day before, he and Emma had exchanged bitter words – leading Hardy to wonder whether all husbands and wives end up as enemies to each other. His family and Florence Dugdale, the much younger woman with whom he has been in a relationship, assume that he will be happy and relieved to be set free. But he is left shattered by the loss.

Hardy’s bewilderment only increases when, sorting through Emma’s effects, he comes across a set of diaries that she had secretly kept about their life together, ominously titled ‘What I Think of My Husband’. He discovers what Emma had truly felt – that he had been cold, remote and incapable of ordinary human affection, and had kept her childless, a virtual prisoner for forty years. Why did they ever marry?

He is consumed by something worse than grief: a chaos in which all his certainties have been obliterated. He has to re-evaluate himself, and reimagine his unhappy wife as she was when they first met.

Hardy’s pained reflections on the choices he has made, and must now make, form a unique combination of love story and ghost story, by turns tender, surprising, comic and true. The Chosen – the extraordinary new novel by Elizabeth Lowry – hauntingly searches the unknowable spaces between man and wife; memory and regret; life and art.

‘To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, religion, all in one’

“Brilliant” – Philip Hoare, New Statesman

John Ruskin – born 200 years ago, in February 1819 – was the greatest critic of his age: a critic not only of art and architecture but of society and life. But his writings – on beauty and truth, on work and leisure, on commerce and capitalism, on life and how to live it – can teach us more than ever about how to see the world around us clearly and how to live it.

Dr Suzanne Fagence Cooper delves into Ruskin’s writings and uncovers the dizzying beauty and clarity of his vision. Whether he was examining the exquisite carvings of a medieval cathedral or the mass-produced wares of Victorian industry, chronicling the beauties of Venice and Florence or his own descent into old age and infirmity, Ruskin saw vividly the glories and the contradictions of life, and taught us how to see them as well.

‘The Split has everything I love in a novel. It’s hilariously funny, it’s so uplifting, and its characters are irresistibly loveable’ – BETH O’LEARY

‘Full of humour, kindness, cake and a cat, this is the novel to turn to in difficult times’ – KATIE FFORDE

Following a brutal break up, Ally flees to her dad’s house in Sheffield with her ex’s cat (who always preferred her anyway). When she realises Emily isn’t coming to win back either her or the cat, Ally takes to the sofa to mourn the future she’d planned.

After a few days’ grace, her dad calls in reinforcements – Ally’s old friend and first beard, Jeremy. Reunited, the two find solace in each other’s heartbreak and an endless supply of baked goods. But jacked up on sugar and mutual delusion, they concoct a plan to run the half marathon and win back their exes…

This seems like the perfect example of their ability to commit and better themselves. But will their exes be waiting at the finish line, or is there a whole new future on the horizon?

A brilliant, heart-warming and intensely funny story of love, heartache, friendship and family. Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Beth O’Leary.

~*~ PRAISE FOR THE SPLIT ~*~
‘A warm, funny, comforting read with such loveable characters!’ – RUTH JONES

‘Uplifting, warm and heartfelt, with a cast of engaging characters who quickly became my friends. A feel-good depiction of love, friendship and family, which is very funny, but with moments of true poignancy too. An absolute must-read‘ – HOLLY MILLER

‘It’s like meeting Marian Keyes and Dawn O’Porter in a cosy gay pub in Sheffield!’ MATT CAIN

‘Wise, wonderful and so much fun. I loved it!‘ – HEIDI SWAIN

‘It was pure fun. Heart-warming and adorable‘ – JULIE COHEN

‘It’s rare that a book so important to the literary canon is, at the same time, entertaining, heart-warming, and funny‘ – ANSTEY HARRIS

‘I adored The Split – a hilarious but oh-so-relatable tale of how not to handle a break-up. It made me laugh and sigh and head out for a run’ – HOLLY HEPBURN

‘An absolute JOY from start to finish. If you’re after a smart, funny romcom with characters to root for, this is one for you’ – RICHARD ROPER

‘Fun, sassy and a joy to read. I loved it!’ – EMMA COOPER

‘Such a lovely and heart-warming book. And it’s hilarious! … You’d be hard pushed to find a better group of characters to spend time with’ – SUZANNE EWART

Love The Split? Then read Laura Kay’s new heartwarming romcom, Making It, available to pre-order now!

‘Joyful, wise and enormously good fun’ TASMINA PERRY

‘An utterly gorgeous story that had me totally hooked. Without a doubt the best book I’ve read this year’ HOLLY MARTIN

If you knew how the love story finished, would you turn the first page?

Amy has been keeping a secret most of her adult life… The women in her family have a gift, or is it a curse?

Since her first kiss, Amy has had visions of how her relationships will end. A date fleeing through the bathroom window. At the altar – runaway-bride style. There seems to be no end to the unhappy endings.

Then she drunkenly kisses three men at her best friend’s wedding, only to wake up with no memory of who she kissed. She knows she’s found ‘the one’ but now she must find out which one…

Roping in her friends, Amy sets off on a mission to find her true love.

What readers are saying about Skip to the End:

‘Well written, charming, sweet and thoroughly enjoyable’

‘A proper feel good book. I couldn’t put it down’

‘I couldn’t have loved this book more. It’s absolutely perfect in every way’

‘This book was absolutely stunning. About Time is one of my all time favourite films and this was finally a book like it’

‘I finished reading Skip to the End with an enormous, contented sigh and a huge smile on my face’

Love Skip to the End? Then read Molly James’s magical new romance, One Day to Fall in Love, available to pre-order now!

William Morris – poet, designer, campaigner, hero of the Arts & Crafts movement – was a giant of the Victorian age, and his beautiful creations and provocative philosophies are still with us today: but his wife Jane is too often relegated to a footnote, an artist’s model given no history or personality of her own.

In truth, Jane and William’s personal and creative partnership was the central collaboration of both their lives. The homes they made together – the Red House, Kelmscott Manor and their houses in London – were works of art in themselves, and the great labour of their lives was life itself: through their houses and the objects they filled them with, they explored how we all might live a life more focused on beauty and fulfilment.

In How We Might Live, Suzanne Fagence Cooper explores the lives and legacies of Jane and William Morris, finally giving Jane’s work the attention it deserves and taking us inside two lives of unparalleled creative artistry.

London, 1919: a city of ghosts and absences, haunted by the men who marched away but never came back.

‘A poignant and readable mystery’ THE TIMES

Grace Armstrong believes that she has come to terms with her own loss, the death of her dazzling fiancé who was declared Missing in Action. But soon he starts to reappear both in her waking life and dreams.

To make matters worse, a body, dragged from the Thames, is identified as Elizabeth Smith, who lodged with Grace and her family for the last eight years before suddenly disappearing.

Elizabeth had been more than a lodger; she had become a close friend to Grace, who feels compelled to uncover the true circumstances of her death. In doing so, she is drawn reluctantly into the sordid and dangerous underbelly of London and a scandal that rocked Edwardian society.

Will Grace find the answers she so desperately craves, or will she lose herself in the search?

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Praise for The Lodger

‘A deliciously Gothic page-turner’ BEST

‘A gripping historical mystery‘ A. J. WEST

‘[Helen Scarlett] has a gift for pulling readers into the twists and turns of her story’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘A devastating reveal and a tangled web I won’t forget’ AMANDA GEARD

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

THE JOURNAL TO ACCOMPANY THE AWARD-WINNING AND BESTSELLING STORIES FOR BOYS WHO DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

John Lennon, Gandhi, Trevor Noah, Grayson Perry, Roald Dahl, Martin Luther King… all dared to be different – and now young boys can too with this fun and enlightening guided journal.


Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different Journal is full of tips and ideas to help boys everywhere explore their dreams and release their creativity in an environment where emotions and feelings are celebrated. Thanks to an array of imaginative and thoughtful prompts, and short biographies of some real-life inspiring figures who followed their personal dreams, this journal will help boys construct their own world away from gender stereotypes and social conventions.

Activities include:

· Devising a plot for a film in which your biggest fear is quashed
· Identifying what cause you would go out and protest for
· Creating a list of characteristics about human beings for aliens
· Imagining what would make you happy a week, a month, ten years from now

It is the must-have journal for all those boys who worry about stuff and all those parents who worry about their boys who worry about stuff.

___________

Praise for STORIES FOR BOYS WHO DARE TO BE DIFFERENT:

“This book can save lives. This book can change lives. This book can help to bring forth another generation of boys who dare to be different” – Benjamin Zephaniah

“[The stories] coalesce into a rousing symphony of against-the-odds achievement” – Financial Times

“It will help to inspire a younger generation to understand that you don’t have to be tough, strong and a dragon killer to be worthwhile” – Stylist

“Offer[s] a refreshing twist . . . and will encourage young boys to resist the gender stereotypes that can damage men as much as women” – Daily Express

Oscar Wilde’s early fame ensured that throughout his short life he was written about by many of those he met. He was celebrated – or mocked – as the master of the ingenious epigram, the provocative paradox, the witty aside or the extravagant conceit.

In researching his monumental biography of Wilde Matthew Sturgis found, in every major archive, sheets of foolscap in Wilde’s distinctive handwriting, setting down a series of unfamiliar epigrams – unpublished try-outs. There were fascinating new discoveries.

He uncovered dozens of unfamiliar and previously ungathered anecdotes about Wilde: sidelights on his days in Oxford, London, America and Paris and beyond, by society hostesses, men-about-town, actors, lawyers, minor litterateurs, artists and politicians, diligently setting down his actions, his mannerisms and above all his sayings.

The items in this volume are all small additions to the Wilde story: some unfamiliar, others unexpected, they enrich and alter the picture of his life.

The incredible and heart-breaking true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal – inspired by No.1 bestselling novel Before We Were Yours

From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a corrupt baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents – hiding the fact that many weren’t orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.

In Before and After, many survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families. Before and AFter includes moving and shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. There are stories of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed, and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace brothers, sisters, and cousins.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT BEFORE AND AFTER

‘What a truly amazing book’ *****

‘Riveting’ *****

‘Captivating and emotional’ *****

‘A real tear-jerker’ *****

The explosive true story of a gun for hire.

‘Hard eyes stare out of massive beards, their faces marked by the scars of battle. With these guys their webbing looks like it belongs to them, rather than it’s been hung on a pair of reluctant shoulders. There’s not a word been said to us, but the ante has clearly been upped. There’s a dark and sinister feeling in the air.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure it’s about to kick off.’

Former SAS soldier Big Phil Campion tells it like is in this brutally honest account of his insanely dangerous life as a private military operator. From playing chicken with a suicide bomber in backstreet Kabul, to taking on pirates with his bare hands, this is true-life action-packed drama at its best.

‘SMART, EMOTIONAL, INTRIGUING AND COMPELLING – I LOVED IT!’ JILL MANSELL

Dannie Kohan has held true to her meticulously crafted 5-year plan since she understood the concept. On the day that she nails the most important interview of her career and gets engaged to the perfect man, she’s well on her way to fulfilling her life goals.

But that night Dannie falls asleep and dreams of a night five years in the future where she’s engaged to another man. It was just a dream, she tells herself when she wakes, but it felt so real.

Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind. That is, until five years later, when Dannie turns down a street and there, standing on the corner, is the man from her dream…

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day, this heart-breaking story of love, loss and life will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about destiny.
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‘What a clever, beautiful, special book. The writing is stunning, the concept is so original – it just has everything going for it. I loved every page!’ Beth O’Leary, author The Flatshare and The Switch

‘Such a touching, soulful experience’ Goodreads reader

‘In Five Years is a stunningly beautiful, brilliant and insightful love story‘ Goodreads reader

‘Heartbreaking and poignant’ Glamour

‘I loved In Five Years. A beautiful, intelligent story about friendships and love’ Clare Mackintosh, author of After the End

‘Full of twists and turns, this is a heart-breaking yet uplifting story about love and friendship‘ Heat magazine ****

*IF YOU LOVED IN FIVE YEARS, REBECCA’S NEXT HEARTBREAKER EXPIRATION DATES IS AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW!*

New York Times bestseller, March 2020