A Baker's Tale: The Life and Times of Ernest Adams by Hugh Adams

$19.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

For much of the last century the names 'Adams Bruce' and 'Ernest Adams' were familiar indeed to lovers of rich cakes and sponges. These firms shared a common origin, had bakeries in all the main centres and sponge kitchens in the smaller centres. Their bright red and white delivery vans were nearly alwa ys to be seen busily delivering cakes - often still warm from the ovens - to local shops. This is a lively tale dealing with the origins, fortunes and misfortunes of the firm, written by Hugh Adams, son of Ernest Adams, who was right in the middle of the action for many years. He dedicates the book to the memories of his father, the company's many loyal employees and the firm's many satisfied customers. The book is well laced with photographs, some going back almost a hundred years, and includes numerous anecdotes. ...Show more

A Fence Around the Cuckoo by Ruth Park

$14.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

First volume of Ruth Park's autobiography. Written as vividly as any of her novels; a moving, passionate, often funny account of the people and places which influenced her early years.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

$70.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs | Reading Level: near fine

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of th e first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorises Operation Neptune Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective — the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organiser tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of hope and change and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.       ...Show more

Fishing in the Styx : An Autobiography by Ruth Park

$24.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography

$18.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

Isherwood : A Life by Peter Parker

$52.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

The definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest novelists. Isherwood's life and travels are laid bare in this frank portrait of one of the twentieth century's most significant writers. From his chronicles of pre-Hitler Berlin, to his role as grand old man of gay liberation, this biog raphy will appeal to fans and general readership alike. Peter Parker has had access to all private family papers and has written a magisterial literary biography of a legendary writer ...Show more

Jack London - A Life by Alex Kershaw

$19.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

Raised in poverty as an illegitimate child, Jack London dropped out of school to support his mother, working in mind-deadening jobs that would foster a lifelong interest in socialism. Brilliant and self-taught, he haunted California's waterside bars, brawling with drunken sailors and learning about love from prostitutes. His lust for adventure took him from the beaches of Hawaii to the gold fields of Alaska, where he experienced firsthand the struggles for survival he would later immortalize in classics like White Fang and The Call of the Wild. A hard-drinking womanizer with children to support, Jack London was no stranger to passion when he met and married Charmian Kittredge, the love of his life. Despite his adventurous past, London had never before met a woman like Charmian; she adored fornication and boxing, and willingly risked life and limb to sail and explore. She typed his manuscripts while he churned out novels, serving as his inspiration and his critic. Lover, fighter, and onetime hobo, Jack London lived large and died before he was forty. This is a rare biography, from bestselling historian Alex Kershaw, that proves the truth can be more fascinating--and a far greater adventure--than a fiction. ...Show more

LETTERS OF LYTTON STRACHEY-VIK by LEVY PAUL ET AL

$34.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

Lenin by Robert Service

$17.50 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

Love, Kurt - The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945 by Kurt Vonnegut; Edith Vonnegut (Editor)

$70.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

A never-before-seen collection of deeply intimate love letters from Kurt Vonnegut to his first wife, Jane, compiled and edited by their daughter and reproduced in gorgeous full color. "If ever I do write anything of length--good or bad--it will be written with you in mind." Kurt Vonnegut's oldest daug hter, Edith, was cleaning out her mother's attic when she stumbled upon a dusty box. Inside were more than two-hundred love letters written by Kurt to Jane, spanning the early years of their relationship- from 1941, when nineteen-year-old Kurt heads off to college, to his deployment to Europe in 1944 and the couple's marriage in 1945. The letters are full of the humor and wit that we have come to associate with Kurt Vonnegut. But they also show more private corners of his mind- Passionate and tender, the letters form an illuminating portrait of a young soldier's life in World War II as he attempts to come to grips with love and mortality. And they expose the origins of Vonnegut the writer, when Jane was the only person who believed in and supported him, and they had no idea how celebrated he would become. A beautiful full-color collection of handwritten letters, notes, sketches, and comics, interspersed with Edith's insights and family memories, Love, Kurt is an intimate record of a young man growing into himself, a fascinating account of a writer finding his voice, and a moving testament to the life-altering experience of falling in love. ...Show more

More Dashing - Further Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor by Patrick Leigh Fermor; Adam Sisman (Volume Editor)

$35.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs

The second volume of exuberant, lively letters from legendary travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor The first collection of letters from Patrick Leigh Fermor, Dashing for the Post, delighted critics and public alike. This second volume, More Dashing, presents a further selection of letters that exude a zest for life and adventure characteristic of the man known to all as 'Paddy'. Paddy's exuberant letters contain glimpses of the great and the good: a chance conversation with the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, when Paddy opens the wrong door, or a glass of ouzo under the pine trees with Harold Macmillan. They describe encounters with such varied figures as Jackie Onassis, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Oswald Mosley and Peter Mandelson, while also relating adventures with the humble: a 'pick-nick' with the stonemasons at Kardamyli, or a drunken celebration in the Cretan mountains with his old comrades from the Resistance, most of them simple shepherds and goatherds. Paddy was at ease in any company - unfailingly charming, boyish, gentle and fun. Patrick Leigh Fermor has long been recognised as one of the greatest travel writers of his time. Nowhere is his restless curiosity and delight in language more dazzlingly displayed than in his letters, skilfully edited in this collection by Adam Sisman. ...Show more

My Lives by Edmund White

$30.00 NZD

Category: World Biography, and Memoirs