Kirjahaku

Marianne Faithfull was the perfect icon of the Swinging Sixties; her life as colourful as the decade itself. A quiet but beautiful convent girl, she became internationally famous through her relationship with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. As Years Go By is a richly detailed portrait of a woman who has lived an incredible life, one that far transcends her best known role as courtesan to the chief Rolling Stone. From aristocratic lineage to convent school, stardom to attempted suicide, junkie to punk, folk singer to torch chanteuse, Marianne has seen her life flash by in banner headlines. Researched through over 50 interviews with her family, former lovers and friends, As Years Go By reveals the truth behind the headlines, the person behind the profile. Updated and extensively revised by one of the UK's most acclaimed writers, it is a candid, illuminating account of an endearing yet misunderstood artist.

The story of two men who almost single-handedly saved their football club from extinction. In the early 80s David Kilpatrick and Graham Morris spied architects' plans to turn Spotland, the home of their beloved, beleaguered Rochdale AFC, into a housing estate. They set about saving the club but first had to take on the alleged 'enemy within'. They worked tirelessly, persuading companies to write off debts while securing loans and donations, a tricky proposition when your club is bottom of the Football League. Meanwhile, the town of Rochdale was on its knees, the last of the cotton mills closing down. The limit of most fans' investment in their club is routinely the price of a season ticket. Directors often risk their houses and businesses, sometimes forfeiting marriages, families and their health in the name of their club. People such as Kilpatrick and Morris - moderately wealthy local businessmen - who serve on football club boards are the unseen, unsung heroes of football, even in the modern age.

The incredible true story of the first Allied soldier to open the gates of Belsen.Herbert Kenny, an army dispatch rider, was the first Allied soldier to push open the gates at Belsen Concentration Camp, in April 1945. He kept his story from the world until an encounter with a trainee journalist brought it to light. Now, forty years on, that reporter is ready to share Herbert's incredible tale with the world. With unprecedented access to Herbert's diaries, letters and interviews, Mark Hodkinson brings to life the harrowing conditions of Belsen and its eventual liberation. From the events leading up to its gruesome discovery, to the trauma Herbert faced and his abandonment in the aftermath, this is a testament to the power of one person in the face of unimaginable darkness.This is the tale of an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary, life-changing situation. How can a person cope when they come face-to-face with history's darkest moment? Herbert Kenny was that man. This is his story.'I have carried this story for many years, as Herbert did. I have written it because I owe it to him and others, the unknown and unsung, who, across many areas of life, have been burdened indiscriminately by great adversity and grief. They do really walk among us. And their grace, humility and strength is inspirational. While this is a tale of systematic malevolence, it is also about the resilience of the human spirit and a celebration of hope: there is more good than bad in the world, however it may sometimes seem.'

Herbert Kenny, an army dispatch rider, was the first ally to push open the gates at Belsen Concentration Camp, in April 1945.He kept his story from the world until a chance correspondence with a trainee journalist brought it to light. Now, forty years on, that reporter is ready to share Herbert's incredible tale with the world.With unprecedented access to Herbert's diaries, letters and interviews, Mark Hodkinson brings to life the harrowing conditions of Bergen-Belsen and its eventual liberation. From the events leading up to its gruesome discovery, to the trauma Herbert faced and his abandonment in the aftermath, this is a testament to the power of one person in the face of unimaginable darkness.This is the tale of an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary, life-changing situation. How can a person cope when they come face-to-face with history's darkest moment? Herbert Kenny was that man. This is his story.

In 1973-74, Britain was in meltdown. The Arab-Israeli War had sent energy prices soaring. Petrol was scarce. Offices were limited to a temperature of 17C and power cuts were frequent. A three-day working week came in as inflation took hold and miners and other workers went on strike. The northern mill town of Rochdale suffered more than most. Its cotton industry was on shut-down in the face of cheap imports, and the football team was a mirror image of the town - tired, defeated, clinging to life. The Rochdale team of 1973-74 are considered the worst to play in the Football League. They finished bottom of the third division, winning just twice in 46 league matches. They closed the season with a 22-game winless run and played one home match in front of the lowest-ever post-war crowd. That season 32 players played for the team, many of them drafted in from amateur or Sunday league clubs. The Longest Winter is as much a piece of forensic social history as it is a sports book. It evokes the smells, textures and moods of the early 1970s.

Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles, at the last count.No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It's about the schools, the music, the people - but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It's about a family who didn't see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories. It's also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

The first biography of the legendary British band to focus on their formative years. It highlights the desperately urgent days of pre-stardom, when the Queen quartet played with bands like The Reaction, The Opposition, 1984, and Sour Milk Sea. From the tiny downbeat village of Oadby in Leicestershire, where John Deacon grew up, to the exotic splendor of Zanzibar, where Farookh Bulsara was born, author Mark Hodkinson offers a new and enticing version of Queen. In tracing these unpublished stories, he also examines the Queen era before and immediately after stardom.

This book focuses on John Barrett whose band, Killing Stars, toured the world and enjoyed numerous Top Ten hits while holding on to an integrity they forged through the revolution of punk and new wave. Inevitably, the hits dried up, his time ran out and he's now a washed up alcoholic who considers his current album rubbish and says so on national television. This is an intelligent, literate read covering the legacy of punk, girls loved and lost, friendship, suicide, mortality, where it all went wrong. And right.