Losing My Virginity

The autobiography of the Virgin tycoon. "Having come close to dying over the Atlas Mountains, I thought that I should write this book now, in case my guardian angel ever deserts me. I also realised that my children, Holly and Sam, who are still young, would not really know what I had done and why I had done it. So this autobiography is for Holly and Sam, the best thing I've created in the last eighteen years (though I can't take all the credit). But most especially for their mother, my wife Joan, who's seen me through most of the highs and lows. I have also written this book to show how we made Virgin what it is today. Rather like our balloon flights, these years have been all about survival. If you read carefully between the lines you will, I hope, understand our vision and where we are going. Some people say that this vision breaks all the rules and is wildly kaleidoscopic; others say that Virgin is set to become one of the leading brand names of the next century; others analyse it down to the last degree and write academic papers on it. As for me and the wonderful team around me, we just pick up the phone and get on with it -- and have one hell of an adventure in the process."

Richard Branson

Biographies & Memoirs

HarperCollins

Their enemies branded them both murderesses, whores and daughters of the devil. Elizabeth’s supporters anointed her a hero and savior, while Mary’s faithful invested her as a saint and martyr. Reigning side by side, but yet never meeting face-to-face, these queens were inexorably linked in a tumultuous relationship that, until now, has never fully been revealed and explored.
 Elizabeth &amp; Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens is master biographer Jane Dunn’s richly textured portrait of two incredible women. A story of a relationship punctuated by reversals of fortune; murder mysteries; sexual intrigue; reckless behavior, heated battles and cold war, Elizabeth &amp; Mary is staged against a past as dark and dangerous as it was vibrantly alive.
Dunn shows the indissoluble bond between the queens was forged by two opposing forces; their shared inheritance and rivalry for Elizabeth’s crown set against their natural solidarity as ruling females in an overwhelmingly masculine world. She delves behind Elizabeth’s reputation as steely virgin queen, using her celibacy as a weapon, valuing reason and duty above all. She looks at Mary as celebrity queen, femme fatale and flawed heroine, a woman who capped the theatre of her death in a brilliant cloak of redemption. And she corrects many misconceptions about her subjects, revealing Mary as a more serious contender for power than had been previously thought, and Elizabeth as far more vulnerable than her formidable reputation.
Intelligent and completely riveting, this beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated book masterfully juxtaposes the histories of two remarkable women, culminating in tragedy, as Elizabeth the victorhesitantlysigned her cousin’s death warrant.

Elizabeth And Mary

Dunn, Jane

Community & Culture

HarperCollins Publishers

With Lady Franklin’s Revenge, bestselling author KenMcGoogan (Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner) delivers another pageturning biography that brings a remarkable historical figure vividly to life.Denied a role in Victorian England’s male-dominated society, Jane Franklin(17911875) took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine ofpursuits, Arctic exploration, and shaping its history to her own ends.
Arguably the greatest woman traveller of the 19th century, LadyFranklin rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed a rat-infested boat up the Nile,climbed mountains in Africa and the Holy Land, and, wearing petticoats, beat herway through the Tasmanian bush. 
When Sir John Franklin, her husband, disappeared into the Arcticin 1845, she orchestrated an unprecedented 12-year search, contributing more tothe discovery of the North than any celebrated explorer. Having failed to rescuethe hapless Franklin, she turned failure into triumph by creating a legend.
Richly detailed, panoramic in scope, this biography of theunforgettable Jane Franklin is destined to become a classic.

Lady Franklins Revenge

McGoogan, Ken

Historical

Phyllis Bruce Books

The Hills of Tuscany. A New Life in an Old Land

Ferenc Máté

On Rue Tatin: the simple pleasures of life in a small French town

SUSAN HERMANN LOOMIS

Lady Franklin's Revenge

When Sir John Franklin disappeared into the Arctic in 1845, it was his adventurouswife, Jane Franklin, who kept the search for him alive and, as a result, contributedmore to the discovery and mapping of the North than any explorer. A thirdmasterful biography from historian Ken McGoogan, Lady Franklin’s Revenge isthe richly documented story of a complex, ambitious Victorian―arguably thegreatest woman traveller of the 19th century― and the transformation of a failedexpedition into a triumphant legend. A Globe and Mail Book of the Year, andshortlisted for the Ontario Libraries Evergreen Award, Lady Franklin’s Revenge isan exquisitely illustrated epic adventure.

Phyllis Bruce Books Perennial

This is the first biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship of their lives, and marked the intersection of the great Tudor and Stuart dynasties, a landmark event in British history. Distinguished biographer Jane Dunn reveals an extraordinary story of two queens ruling in one isle, both embodying opposing qualities of character, ideals of womanliness and of divinely ordained kingship. Theirs is a drama of sex and power, recklessness, ambition and political intrigue, with a rivalry that could only be resolved by death. As regent queens in an overwhelmingly masculine world, they were deplored for their femininity, compared unfavourably with each other, and courted by the same men. By placing this dynamic and ever-changing relationship at the centre of the book, Dunn throws new light and meaning on the complexity of their natures. She reveals an Elizabeth revolutionary in her insistence on ruling alone, while Mary is not the romantic victim of history, but a courageous adventurer with a reckless heart. Vengeful against her enemies and the more ruthless of the two, she was untroubled by plotting Elizabeth's murder. Elizabeth, however, was in anguish at having to sanction Mary's death warrant for treason. Working almost exclusively from contemporary letters and writings, she lets them speak to us across more than four hundred years, their voices and responses surprisingly familiar to our own, their characters vivid, by turns touching and terrible.

Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins@@ Rivals@@ Queens

Jane Dunn

Reference

HarperPerennial

A rollercoaster journey through the glory days of pop music, this memoir from famed produced Tony Visconti brings to life more than five decades of music history. Soon after abandoning his native New York in the 1960s to pursue his career in the UK, Visconti found himself in the thick of the emerging glam rock movement. His first commercial success came with T.Rex, but it was with the then-unknown David Bowie that Visconti made his mark on the music scene. He has since worked with dozens of famous artists, among them Thin Lizzy, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, U2, and Wings. In this riveting autobiography, Visconti recalls the stories from his early days up until his present life back in New York. Filled with the groups and artists who shaped and made the pop scene, this is the story of a life spent behind the music.

Tony Visconti: The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy

Visconti, Tony

Arts & Literature

HarperCollins UK

A name synonymous with ground-breaking music, Tony Visconti has worked with the most dynamic and influential names in pop, from T.Rex and Iggy Pop to David Bowie and U2. This is the compelling life story of the man who helped shape music history, and gives a unique, first-hand insight into life in London during the late 1960s and '70s.
This memoir takes you on a roller-coaster journey through the glory days of pop music, when men wore sequins and pop could truly rock. Featuring behind-the-scenes stories of big names such as Bowie, Visconti's unique access to the hottest talent, both on stage and off, for over five decades is complemented by unseen photographs from his own personal archive, offering a glimpse at music history that few have witnessed so intimately.
Soon after abandoning his native New York to pursue his musical career in the UK, Visconti was soon in the thick of the emerging glam rock movement, launching T.Rex to commercial success and working with the then-unknown David Bowie.
Since his fateful move to the land of tea and beer drunk straight from the can, Visconti has worked with such names as T.Rex, Thin Lizzy, Wings, The Boomtown Rats, Marsha Hunt, Procol Harum, and more recently Ziggy Marley, Mercury Rev, the Manic Street Preachers and Morrissey on his acclaimed new album 'Ringleader of the Tormentors'.
Even Visconti's personal life betrays an existence utterly immersed in music. Married to first to Siegrid Berman, then to Mary Hopkin and later to May Pang, he counts many of the musicians and producers he has worked with as close friends and is himself a celebrated musician.

Tony Visconti: The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy. A nostalgic journey through the golden age of British pop and rock music

Humor & Entertainment

Harper

Cleopatra: Level 4 (National Geographic Readers)

Barbara Kramer

Collins

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