Tall Tales and Wee Stories by Billy Connolly

$32.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

'Coming from Glasgow, it's weird, I don't really tell jokes, like Irish jokes and all that. I tell wee stories. And some of them don't even have punchlines. But you'll get used to it as the night goes on, and on, and on, and on and on...' In December 2018, after 50-years of belly-laughs, energy, outrag e and enjoyment, Billy Connolly announced his retirement from stand-up comedy. It had been an extraordinary career. When he first started out in the late Sixties, Billy played the banjo in the folk clubs of Glasgow. Between songs, he would improvise a bit, telling anecdotes from the Clyde shipyard where he worked. In the process, he made all kinds of discoveries about what audiences found funny, from his own exaggerated body movements to the power of speaking explicitly about sex. He began to understand the craft of great storytelling too. Soon the songs became shorter and the monologues longer, and Billy quickly became recognised as one of the most exciting comedians of his generation. Billy's routines always felt spontaneous. He improvised, embellished and digressed as he went: a two-minute anecdote could become a 20-minute routine by the next night of a tour. And he brought a beautiful sense of the absurd to his shows as he riffed on holidays, alcohol, the crucifixion, or naked bungee jumping. But Billy's comedy could be laced with anger too. He hated pretentiousness and called out hypocrisy where ever he saw it. He loved to shock, and his startling appearance gave him license to say anything he damn well pleased about sex, politics or religion. It was only because he was so likeable that he got it away. Billy had the popular touch. His comedy spanned generations and different social tribes in a way that few others have ever managed. Tall Tales and Wee Stories brings together the very best of Billy's storytelling for the first time and includes his most famous routines including, The Last Supper, Jojoba Shampoo, Incontinence Pants and Shouting at Wildebeest. With an introduction and original illustrations by Billy throughout, it is an inspirational, energetic and riotously funny read, and a fitting celebration of our greatest ever comedian. ...Show more

Confessions of a Bookseller (HB) by Shaun Bythell

$32.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

"Do you have a list of your books, or do I just have to stare at them?" Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms. Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don't understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices. The Diary of a Bookseller (soon to be a major TV series) introduced us to the joys and frustrations of life lived in books. Sardonic and sympathetic in equal measure, Confessions of a Bookseller will reunite readers with the characters they've come to know and love. ...Show more

No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani; Omid Tofighian (Translator)

$24.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

'Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.' Richard Flanagan Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains... Since 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani has been held in the Manus Island off shore processing centre. People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests... This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through six years of incarceration and exile. Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains? ...Show more

Unfollow: Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

$34.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

'For anyone who enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy or Educated, Unfollow is an essential text' - LOUIS THEROUX 'A beautiful, gripping book about a singular soul, and an unexpected redemption' - NICK HORNBY As featured on the BBC documentary, 'The Most Hated Family in America' It was an upbringing in many ways n ormal. A loving home, shared with squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. Yet in other ways it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings vanishing in the night. Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But being reviled was not one of them. She was preaching God's truth. She was, in her words, 'all in'. In November 2012, at the age of twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind. Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person changing their mind. It is a fascinating insight into a closed world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find compassion for others, as well as herself. ...Show more

How to Escape from Prison by Paul Wood

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

A book on how to break free from prison A powerful lesson in personal change As an 18-year-old, Dr Paul Wood was completely off the rails. He wasn't coping with the impending death of his mother, he was dependent on drugs, and was an unemployed high-school dropout committing crimes to feed his habit. Tw o days after his mother died he lost control when his then drug dealer attempted to assault him. He then spent 11 years in some of New Zealand's toughest prisons. But after a series of remarkable events, including a enlightening encounter with a criminal safe-cracker, Paul became the first person in New Zealand to progress through undergraduate studies to attain a bachelor's and master's degree in prison, and was the first person to begin a doctorate while still incarcerated. In this awe-inspiring book, Dr Paul Wood shares his life of crime, his time behind bars and his pathway to freedom. How to Escape from Prison is about survival, self-control, education, and using adversity to your advantage. It is a book about how to identify your own personal prison, and the five steps to freedom Paul has developed for his programme called What's Your Prison? Through his own experience behind bars, Paul became aware of the fundamental issues people face when trying to create change. He says that 85% of the decisionswe make every day are made while on auto-pilot. You can either arrive at yourdeath-bed on autopilot or you can make conscious changes to your life. His academic study in the fields of human behaviour, development and industrial and organisational psychology led him to establish a way of thinking about who we are as individuals and our capacity to overcome our greatest challenges. Part memoir, part guide on how to escape from prison, this is a incredible, gripping read about a man who reached the depths of overwhelming despair, to the heights of true freedom. ...Show more

The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane van Iperen

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Ian Mckellen: The Biography by Gary O'Connor

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs | Reading Level: 3 Biography

Few actors achieve in their lifetime what Sir Ian McKellen has. A repertoire of vast commercial success coupled with critically acclaimed and authoritative Shakespearian roles. A man whose gargantuan personality and varied achievements inspire both admiration and affection. McKellen has been feted and admired in every country across the globe, and has been knighted by, and received the Companionship of Honour from Queen Elizabeth II. He is an icon of, and ardent campaigner in, the cause for LGBT rights. Many of us know of McKellen through his depiction of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Garry O'Connor's definitive biography reveals the man behind McKellen the actor. The inside story of the person himself: a constantly developing drama and a work in progress. Yet Garry O'Connor pulls no punches: some of his revelations may be controversial to his fans, even explosive, given McKellen's constant ability to shock and surprise. The author has himself directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed McKellen in some of his very first roles. This is an unflinching, yet deeply intimate and affectionate, biography that, like McKellen himself, will stand the test of time as a rounded and complete portrait of one of the most unusual geniuses of our times. ...Show more

The Note Through the Wire by Doug Gold

$36.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

An extraordinary true story of a love that emerged, against all odds, from the brutal war in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy: and Other Rules to Live By by David Mitchell

$36.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

The Sunday Times bestseller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse, was published back in 2014 and it must have really made people think. Because everything's got worse. We've gone from UKIP to Brexit, from horse lasagne to fatbergs, from big society to food banks. The only possible way to cheer up in 2 019 is to dive into David Mitchell's terrifically clever and witty analysis of the farce of recent years. Here he takes on the utter nonsense rained down on us from corporate PRs, governments in the thrall of lobbyists, customers being preyed upon by algorithm-wielding corporations, evil interest groups tricking electors with targeted lies, flat-earthers and Eton boys. No other writer is a match for the dumbfounding times we live in. ...Show more

Face It (Debbie Harry Memoirs) HB by Debbie Harry

$49.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs | Reading Level: 3 Biography

Debbie Harry has achieved a level of global success and iconic stature that is reserved for very few musicians, and even fewer women. Charismatic lead singer, critically acclaimed solo artist and style icon, her allure is endless and her legacy is enduring. In this, her first memoir, Debbie shares her r emarkable life story. Finding fame in the anarchic punk scene of mid-70s downtown New York, Blondie went on to enjoy worldwide success, freewheeling through genres, from pop to rap via disco and reggae, with a sense of assuredness and abandon that typified their lead singer. Debbie, a brilliant lyricist with a captivating stage presence, has made an indelible impression on pop culture; within the band, in her solo career and as an actor. Time and again, she has pushed boundaries and defied expectations. From gigging in CBGBs to headlining Glastonbury in 2014, Debbie's career has spanned nearly four decades and generated over 40 million record sales. Unafraid to speak her mind, she encapsulates a sense of independence, strength and sincerity that has inspired generations. Now Debbie recalls the experiences that have shaped her – the unprecedented triumphs and the darkest challenges – in her typically unapologetic, vibrant style. ...Show more

Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

In 1994 fledgling journalist Louis Theroux was given a one-off gig on Michael Moore's TV Nation, presenting a segment on apocalyptic religious sects. Gawky, socially awkward and totally unqualified, his first reaction to this exciting opportunity was panic. But he'd always been drawn to off-beat charact ers, so maybe his enthusiasm would carry the day. Or, you know, maybe it wouldn't ... In his book, Louis takes the reader on a joyous journey through his life and unexpectedly successful career. Nervously accepting the BBC's offer of his own series, he went on to create an award-winning documentary style that has seen him immersed in worlds as diverse as racist US militias and secretive pro-wrestlers, the violent gangs of Johannesburg and extreme drinkers in London. Arguably his biggest challenge was corralling celebrities in his When Louis Met series, with Jimmy Savile proving most elusive. Blindsided when the revelations about Savile came to light, Louis was to reflect again on the nature of evil he had spent decades uncovering. Filled with wry observation, larger-than-life characters, and self-deprecating humour, this is Louis at his insightful and honest best. ...Show more

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

$37.99 NZD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Ray: "Traitor or Patriot? Now we have Edward Snowden’s own story — high-school dropout; hacker; joined the Army after 9/11; top secret security clearance at the age of 22.  Will make you wonder about the wisdom of Australia sharing its intelligence with the U.S. And make you worry abou t how much the government knows about you — which is everything."     Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government's system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it. Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online - a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet's conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic. ...Show more