1 - 2 page biographies of the most important history makers of the world.
The UK's leading celebrity biographer tells the uplifting story of the woman who overnight became the most famous celebrity in the country. Sean Smith examines Kate Middleton's early life, her unhappy time being bullied at school before finding her feet at Marlborough College where she was transformed from an ugly duckling to a swan. He travels to St Andrews in Scotland where she met Prince William. Her relationship with William began when they shared a house, blossomed when they left university before hitting the rocks in 2007 wh... read more
What's your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our life - but what if you didn't know the answers? Kate Adie uncovers the extraordinary, moving and inspiring stories of just such children - without mother or father, any knowledge of who they might be, or even a name to call their own. With a curiosity inspired by her own circumstances as an adopted child, Kate shows how the most remarkable adults have survived the experience of abandonment. From every perspective Kat... read more
Two weeks after saying farewell to her first foster child, Casey is asked to look after Sophia, a troubled 12-year-old with a sad past. Sophia's actions are disturbing and provocative and, before long, Casey and her family find themselves in a dark and dangerous situation, leading Casey to question whether she is really cut out for foster care. Two years ago Sophia's mother had a terrible accident. Sophia has been in care ever since. Right away, Casey feels something isn't right. Sophia's a well-developed girl, who looks more lik... read more
Lisa arrives in Sudan full of determination to use her skills as a nurse to do something to ease the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people caught up in the civil war raging through Darfur. She is working with Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international organisation that sends health workers to the most desperate places in the world. The six months she spends on the mission will be the toughest of her life but will teach her some fundamental truths about what people are capable of, both good and bad, and about herself. Lisa ... read more
The mysterious world of elite combat units blown wide open...Find out how elite teams prepare for Close Quarter Battle. Discover how they launch assaults against pirate boats. Learn the secrets to directing air attack against a key intelligence target. Read how units manage to enter hostile territory undetected, and carry out long-ranges reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines. In his new book, former SAS hero Chris Ryan delves into the secretive world of elite warfare, revealing the nuts and bolts of some of the toughest, s... read more
Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman, born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at twelve on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, the worldwide bestseller, Desert Flower. Although Waris Dir... read more
Jacky was twenty-three when she arrived in Egypt for a holiday with her boyfriend, Dave. Little did she know that an innocent holiday would result in a horror beyond her imagination. Separated from Dave in a bustling street, Jacky fell and twisted her ankle, only to be swept up by a handsome, chivalrous Egyptian called Omar. It was love at first sight. Jacky spent those ten days living with the family - sharing a bed with Omar's sister - irresistibly attracted to Omar. Swept away by her infatuation she married him and converted to ... read more
Humans cannot survive more than three minutes without air; more than three hours exposed to extreme low-temperature; more than three days without water; more than three weeks without food. These are the general laws of survival, but some people defy the odds. Using true tales of survival, including high-profile cases such as the case of the sailors lasting at sea for 199 days adrift on the Rose Noelle, the soldiers who died on Ruapehu while a Japanese tramper came off the mountain and asked for a cigarette, and the much-discussed c... read more
In this highly personal follow-up to Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali examines the high cost of freedom - estrangement from her family and country, the loud criticism of her by many Muslims (some of them women), the 24-hour security which came as a result of death threats, and her struggle to come to terms with an often lonely independence. She records the painful reconciliation with her beloved father, who had disowned her when she began criticising Islam, and the sorts of conflicts inherent in feeling torn between heart and mind. And as ... read more
Find out everything you need to know about Lady Gaga - international superstar, style icon and pop princess!
From the moment a fired-up teenager won 1960 Olympic gold to the day when a retired legend, hands shaking from Parkinson
So as not to seem completely self-indulgent to his friends and family, Conor started his year-long trip around the world with a three-month stint volunteering in the Little Princes Orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as a cover story changed Conor's life, and the lives of countless others, forever. The turning point occurred during Conor's second stint as a volunteer with Little Princes. While playing on the roof of the orphanage, Conor was approached by a woman who would turn out to be the mother of two of the wards. Over hou... read more
New Zealand born nurse Marguerite van Geldermalsen first visited the lost city Petra with her friend Elizabeth in 1978 on a sightseeing tour of the ancient world. Already looking forward to her beach holiday at the end of the trip, little did Maguerite know she was about to meet the man she would marry, the charismatic Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin craftsman of the Manajah tribe. A life with Mohammad meant moving into his ancient cave and learning to love the regular tasks of baking shrak bread on an open fire and collecting ... read more
Irene Spencer grew up in a fundamentalist, polygamous Mormon village in Arizona. The thirteenth of thirty-one children, she grew up in abject poverty and isolation, and was taught that she should never question the church leaders. Her mother, unable to cope, left her children and three 'sister-wives' with her abusive husband. Desperate to escape her violent home, and believing she had no choice but to live by 'the Principle', at sixteen Irene found herself in a plural marriage, sharing her husband with her half sister. When the gov... read more
'She has taken a sordid story of perennial poverty, gang rape and judicial brutality and inspired us... Mukhtar Mai is a hero'- New York TimesMukhtar Mai came to prominence in June 2002, when journalists in Pakistan first learned of her gang rape, punishment for an 'honour crime' allegedly committed by her brother, an offence for which there was never any proof. After the horrific rape, custom dictated that she would kill herself. But Mai defied custom. In an unprecedented act of courage, she took her rapists to court. Mukhtar Mai ... read more
When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part Carolyn's heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that has settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstoo... read more
Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie was born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at 12 on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, Desert Flower. Although Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and c... read more
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