Showing titles in Cultural & Regional

In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government because she already had two daughters. Two years later, an American couple travelled to Shaoyang to adopt a Chinese toddler they thought had been abandoned. Their understanding had been that China's brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents.

When John Stoessinger was ten years old, Adolf Hitler annexed his homeland of Austria, ripping the boy from his home and his friends in Vienna. His grandparents encouraged his mother and stepfather to take young John somewhere safe. "You must have a future," his grandfather told him before he and his parents boarded the train and waved goodbye. As they trekked across the country, from Vienna to Prague and then finally settling in Shanghai, there was never a single moment Stoessinger was not afraid.

Read by the author, Dragged Up Proppa is the story of growing up working class in a forgotten England. 'Very compelling, beautifully written memoir of a time and England that no longer exists but remains just as important today as ever' – Sebastian Payne, author of Broken Heartlands Pip Fallow...

A SPECTATOR AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Timely and beautifully written' Sunday Times 'Phenomenal. An extraordinary insight into a country barely known - and often feared - by the West' Vogue Welcome to Tehran, a city where survival depends on a network of...

Award-winning comedian Zarna Garg turns her astonishing life story into a hilarious memoir, spilling all the chai on her wild ride from escaping an arranged marriage and homelessness in India to carving her own path in America and launching a dazzling second act in midlife. “A deeply honest...

Bloomsbury presents Strong Roots, written and read by Olia Hercules, featuring original music performed by Cats & Bats and Olia Hercules. 'An instant classic' NIGELLA LAWSON 'Sweeping, intimate, defiant and brimming with love' LOUISE KENNEDY 'It is the roots that keep the trees from falling...

Brutally Honest, Honestly Brutal. Skinhead Diaries is a record of 20th century social history when young people aligned themselves with youth cults. There were punks, rockabillies, rockers, teds, new romantics, mods, scooter boys, heavy metallers, hippies and goths. At the age of twelve Paul Burnley followed his older brother into the ranks of London skinheads. It was a path that lead to violence, under age drinking, police cells, family abandonment, hard core oi music and far right fantatisism. Written from the viewpoint and reckless attitude of the time, the author pulls no punches.

Top of the Morgen! charts the adventures of Laurence Falconer, a craic-loving Dubliner, as he tries to get to grips with a new life in Germany. In his hilarious, heart-warming and self-deprecating style, Laurence explores and celebrates the similarities between the Irish and the Germans...

'Sally's book is an exemplar of the best in the genre' Krishnan Srinivasan, The Statesman A blend of travel writing, memoir, history and current affairs that tells the story of Sri Lanka. A perfect read for first-time visitors, Sri Lankans abroad or at home, or anyone looking to deepen their...

Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase into New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They're the guards in dark blue suits, keeping careful watch over this vast treasure house. Caught up in the early days of a glamorous journalism career, Patrick Bringley never thought he'd be one of them. Then his brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he needed to escape the mundane clamour of daily life. So he quit, and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.

Brought to you by Penguin. The classic evocative tale of an idyllic childhood in the English countryside Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the...

In this distinct, subversive and intimate hybrid memoir, Katie Goh explores the orange as a means of understanding the world, and herself within it. What she finds is a world of violence, colonialism, resilience, survival, adaptation - and of unexpected beauty and sweetness against all odds. The orange's odyssey parallels Katie's search for her own heritage and, drawing on her family history as well as extensive travel and research, she follows it from east-to-west and west-to-east - from Longyan, China, to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and the groves of California.

Two days after his eighteenth birthday, Kenny Imafidon was charged with the murder of a seventeen-year-old boy in south-east London. The middle child of a single mother with ambitions for her children, Kenny grew up near an estate in Peckham where deprivation and hopelessness were rife, and gang culture flourished in his community. Kenny faced a minimum of thirty years behind bars. A candid and unfiltered take on some of the most challenging topics that define our times, That Peckham Boy is a personal manifesto exploring what it means to be young, Black and poor in the city.

GOLD WINNER OF 'BEST NARRATOR' AT THE AUDIO PRODUCTION AWARDS. 'This guy has better Punjabi than both of us and he's only half Punjabi.' Only. Half. I stared at those words. The intent behind the comment was in no way malicious, but it hurt. I felt diminished. I felt like I was being robbed of...

Undershaw was the Surrey home of Arthur Conan Doyle between 1897-1907. Built lovingly for his wife Touie to help treat her ongoing battle with tuberculosis, Arthur created a haven for his wife and family. It was here he wrote The Hound of The Baskervilles, brought Sherlock Holmes back to life in "The Empty House", and entertained guests such as writer J.M. Barrie, illustrator Sidney Paget, renowned actor William Gillette, and more.

Brought to you by Penguin. A witty and humane account of one man, multiple jobs and what it means to live Hu AnYan has held nineteen different jobs since he graduated. He’s been a convenience store clerk, a bicycle salesman, a security guard and a delivery driver (among many other things)...

In late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigation into Jackson`s failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months and a day later, the King of Pop was dead.It was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for a planned concert series at London's 02 Arena in July 2009.

The moving memoir of a scientist coming of age as an immigrant in America who finds her calling at the forefront of the AI revolution. Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li “one of a tiny group of scientists—a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table—who are responsible for AI’s...

Brought to you by Penguin. Corruption, sleaze and violence were woven into the fabric of twentieth-century Sicilian life, as the Mafia rose to dominance; this is the story of one man who stood in opposition. In 1986, the largest Mafia trial in Italy’s history took place in Sicily. The...

Insightful, incisive & enlightening, the first volume of Simon Callow's comprehensive biography of Orson Welles. Now in abridged audio, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions...