Eric Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton

$14.00 NZD

Category: Music | Reading Level: very good

Eric Clapton is far more than a rock star. Like Dylan and McCartney he is an icon and a living legend. He has sold tens of millions of records, played sell-out concerts all over the world and been central to every significant musical development of his era. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as 'God '. Tracks such as 'Layla', 'Sunshine of Your Love', 'Wonderful Tonight' and 'Tears in Heaven' have become anthems for generations of music fans. Now for the first time, Eric tells the story of his personal and professional journeys in this pungent, witty and painfully honest autobiography. But the rock star lifestyle has had a darker side too. In more than forty years at the forefront of his profession he has twice survived near fatal addictions to drugs and alcohol, the deaths of close friends such as Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, the death of his own young son, the break-up of marriage and the disintegration of countless relationships with a succession of beautiful women. Eric was born an illegitimate child to a Canadian airman in 1945 and raised by his grandparents. Until the age of 9 he believed his absentee mother to be his sister. When the truth was revealed he felt a sense of abandonment and isolation which was eventually to drive him to despair and addiction. From his early teens his solace was the guitar. At the age of eighteen he joined the Yardbirds and from then on his legendary status was assured. In 1966 the world's first super group, Cream, was formed and at the age of 22 Eric was a world superstar. During his later solo career, his love for George Harrison's beautiful wife, Pattie Boyd drove him to the hell of drug addiction and by the 70s he had disappeared from public view. But Eric fought back and produced platinum albums such as 'Slowhand' and eventually married Pattie. But the love of his life didn't last. Alcohol took over. In the late 80s the marriage disintegrated, and Eric had a son, Connor, with an Italian supermodel. But Connor was tragically killed in a freak accident. Eric's elegy to his son, 'Tears in Heaven', became one of the biggest selling singles in history. These are the memoirs of a survivor, someone who has reached the pinnacle of success, who has had it all, but whose demons have never left him.At the age of 60 Eric is cured of alcoholism and is in a long term relationship with three young daughters. He is now ready to tell his story as it is, hiding nothing, with a directness and searing honesty that will make this book one of the most compelling memoirs of our time. First published 2007. ...Show more

My Kotuku of the South Seas: Living and Loving in Rarotonga - A Memoir by Helen Henry

$16.00 NZD

Category: Pacific | Reading Level: near fine

The Journals and Letters of Sir Alexander Mackenzie by W. Kaye Lamb (ed.)

$45.00 NZD

Category: Nautical | Reading Level: very good

As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson by Rodney Bolt

$25.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

'On Sunday 11 October 1896, Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, insufferable to the end, died on his knees in church saying the Confession, after a life of relentless success. At that moment his wife Mary became nobody...All this is over,A" Mary wrote in her diary, it has fallen to pieces ar ound us.A"' Young Minnie Sidgwick met her future husband in 1849 when he was twenty and she was eight years old; he proposed to her just three years later. Through her marriage to Edward, whose career would take him from success as a young head schoolmaster to become Archbishop of Canterbury, Mary Benson came to preside over Lambeth Palace and a social circle that ranged from famous politicians and celebrated writers to Queen Victoria herself. But Mrs Benson's most intense and intimate relationships were not with her husband, but with other women. Freed from her intense but largely unhappy marriage after the Archbishop's death, Mary moved out of London with her friend Lucy Tait to preside over a very different Home Counties world, dominated by her brood of fiercely eccentric and talented children, each as unlikely and individual as herself. Drawing on the diaries and novels of the Bensons themselves, as well as writings of contemporaries from George Eliot to Queen Victoria, Rodney Bolt tells the sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious, story of one lovable, brilliant woman and her trajectory through the often surprising opportunities and the remarkable limitations of a Victorian woman's life. ...Show more

Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane W. Roller

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Few personalities from classical antiquity are more familiar yet more poorly grasped than Cleopatra (69-30 BC), Queen of Egypt. The subject of a vast repertory of post-antique popular culture and also a significant figure in literature, art, and music, Cleopatra herself is surprisingly little known and generally misunderstood. Even in the years immediately after her death her memory was condemned by those who defeated her. The image of Cleopatra as an unfit ruler and wanton seductress who destroyed the careers of two of Rome's greatest generals-an image first created by Octavian's propaganda campaign-informs the later portrayals of her on stage and screen. Cleopatra was an accomplished diplomat, administrator, linguist (she was probably the first Ptolemy ruler to learn Egyptian), and author, who, until her very last years, skillfully managed her kingdom in the face of a deteriorating political situation and increasing strength and hostility from Rome. The fact that the wealthy and pivotally placed kingdom of Egypt held out so long against Roman conquest is due primarily to the formidable skills of its last Ptolemaic Queen. Although she is the subject of a vast bibliography, she can be unfairly represented as a person whose physical needs determined her political decisions. Some of the most unbiased data from her own era, the repertory of art and coinage produced while she was alive, are too frequently ignored. In Cleopatra, Duane Roller has written the definitive biography of the Queen, not as a figure in popular culture or even in the arts and literature of the last five hundred years, but as the last Greek Queen of Egypt. In addition to providing an engaging narrative of the Queen's life, the author carefully contextualizes Cleopatra in the revolutionary events of the first century BCE. He highlights the important heritage of the Ptolemies, rulers in Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great three hundred years earlier, and the growing involvement of Rome in North Africa and the Middle East, culminating in Octavian's annexation of Egypt in 30 BCE. Roller also considers Cleopatra's various predecessor Queens, who are often ignored but were fascinating personalities in their own right, and her descendents: although Cleopatra was seen as "the last of the Ptolemies" her daughter and grandson ruled in Africa for another 70 years and created a Ptolemaic government-in-exile at Mauretanian Caesarea. The result is the most complete and authoritative portrait of the life and times of this perennially fascinating figure. ...Show more

Hitch-22 - A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens

$25.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

#1 New York Times bestselling author and finalist for the National Book Award--one of the most admired and controversial public intellectuals of our time--shares his personal life story. Most who have observed Christopher Hitchens over the years would agree that he possesses a ferocious intellect and is unafraid to tackle the most contentious subjects. Now 60, English-born and American by adoption; all atheist and partly Jewish; bohemian (even listing "drinking" along with "disputation" as "hobbies" in Who's Who), he has held to a consistent thread of principle whether opposing war in Vietnam or supporting intervention in Iraq. As a foreign correspondent in some of the world's nastiest places, a lecturer and teacher and an esteemed literary critic, Hitchens manifests a style that is at once ironic, witty, and tough-minded. A legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for literature, he has sometimes ridiculed those who claim that the personal is political, though he has often seemed to illustrate that very idea. Readers will find that his own many opposites attract, as do his many sketches of friendship and ex-friendship, from Martin Amis to Noam Chomsky. Condemned to be able to see both sides of any argument, Christopher Hitchens has contradictions that contain their own multitudes. ...Show more

I Never Said I Loved You by Rhik Samadder

$14.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

'I Never Said I Love You is one of the most electric, enchanting, engrossing and energising memoirs of self-harm, self-loathing, grief, eating disorders, suicide - and sex - that you will read.' The Sunday Times 'Indecently entertaining... one of the most uplifting and eccentric memoirs I have ever rea d.' Observer 'Brutally honest and relentlessly funny.' Adam Kay, author of 'This is Going to Hurt' 'This mind-blowingly wonderful memoir had me convulsing with laughter even while my heart was breaking. It's utterly effing BEAUTIFUL.' Marian Keyes 'I found myself blindsided by this extraordinary book ... I was deeply moved by its capacity both to depict pain, and offer consolation. I loved it, and won't ever forget it.' Sarah Perry 'Both touching and funny' the Telegraph On an unlikely backpacking trip, Rhik and his mother find themselves speaking openly for the first time in years. Afterwards, the depression that has weighed down on Rhik begins to loosen its grip for a moment - so he seizes the opportunity: to own it, to understand it, and to find out where it came from. Through this begins a journey of investigation, healing and recovery. Along the way Rhik learns some shocking truths about his family, and realizes that, in turn, he will need to confront the secrets he has long buried. But through this, he triumphs over his fears and brings his depression into the light. I Never Said I Loved You is the story of how Rhik learned to let go, and then keep going. With unique humour and honesty, he has created a powerfully rich, funny and poignant exploration of the light and dark in all of us. A vital, moving and darkly funny memoir by a powerful new voice in non-fiction. 'Both unputdownable and beautifully-written, bracing and consoling. A book that tackles mental health and the darkest things with razor-sharp wit and mordant laughs aplenty ... read this.' Sharlene Teo 'Touching, funny, wildly readable ... Look out for it.' Sathnam Sanghera 'No one writes better, or more sweetly, about how it feels to feel. Even the darkest times are shot through with glorious, bright beams of wit.' Janet Ellis 'It's honest and funny (and beautifully painful and brutal at times), but also - oh goodness - it's so elegant. The writing is graceful and kind, even when it hurts a little to remember it's a memoir.' Joanna Cannon 'Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. What an absolutely riveting read.' Nikita Gill 'Heartbreaking, funny, raw, brave and - yes! - even better than the egg thing.' Erin Kelly 'I have always loved Rhik Samadder's writing. And now there's a whole book!' Jessie Burton 'A sparkling, thoughtful memoir. It manages to be witty, charming, brooding and devastating all the same time.' Justin Myers, The Guyliner ...Show more

Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny

$20.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Albert Speer was not only Hitler's architect and armaments minister, but the Fuhrer's closest friend--his "unhappy love." Speer was one of the few defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to take responsibility for Nazi war crimes, even as he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Now this enigma of a man is unve iled in a monumental biography by a writer who came to know Speer intimately in his final years. Out of hundreds of hours of interviews, Sereny unravels the threads of Speer's personality: the genius that made him indispensable to the German war machine, the conscience that drove him to repent, and the emotional wounds that made him susceptible to Hitler's lethal magnetism. Read as an inside account of the Third Reich, or as a revelatory unsparing yet compassionate study of the human capacity for evil, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth is a triumph. "Fascinating...Not only a major addition to our knowledge of the Third Reich, but a stunning attempt to understand the nature of good and evil."--Newsday "More than a biography...It also constitutes a perceptive re-examination of the mysterious appeal of Adolf Hitler."--San Francisco Chronicle ...Show more

Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks

$18.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

From the bestselling author of Gratitude and On the Move, a final volume of essays that showcase Sacks's broad range of interests - from his passion for ferns, swimming, and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer's. Oliver Sacks, scientist and storytelle r, is beloved by readers for his neurological case histories and his fascination and familiarity with human behavior at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. Everything in Its Place is a celebration of Sacks's myriad interests. ...Show more

Dog in the Snow: The Story of the Middle East Ski School by James Riddell

$35.00 NZD

Category: Mountaineering | Reading Level: near fine

He was an Alsatian called Rex, who lived among the snows of the mountains of Lebanon and Syria. When the author first met him, in November 1941, Rex belonged to a Bishop of the Maronite Church. Rec disliked strangers, but James Riddell proved an exception. The dog became his devoted companion at the new ly-formed ski instruction school which the author was appointed to command. Rex was a great favourite with the troops who came to the school from all regiments and nations - Australians, New Zealanders, Greeks, Gurkhas, and British. This is Rex's story and theirs. Dog in the Snow is an informative book about an almost unknown war-time activity, written with great charm and humour. All who love animals, and particularly those who can understand the fascination of skiing, will delight in the book. ...Show more

Barraud - The Story of a Family by E. M. Barraud

$60.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years by Margaret Mead

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: good