“With Nelson they were inspired, not by any care or pretence on his part, but by his genuine nature. Whatever was his was the best. The effect of this was that any officer or man coming under his command presently felt that his chief considered him one of the finest fellows that ever lived.”

Admiral Lord Nelson has become an enduring symbol of British heroism and naval power.

Trafalgar. Copenhagen. The Nile. His victories resonate as clearly now as they did upon his death in 1805.

But in an age of naval heroes, what makes Nelson so captivating?

In this biography John Knox Laughton attempts to peel away the layers of fiction and look at the real Nelson.

Combining Nelson’s naval achievements with his personal life, Laughton creates an astounding image of the man, the sailor and the legend.

Meticulously researched, Nelson shows the Admiral’s humanity and that the figures in his life were human also, including the infamous Lady Hamilton.

You will see that Nelson’s accomplishments seem even grander, more spectacular, when you realise they were done by a real person who gave first his eye, then his arm and finally his life for his country.

First published in 1895 by the most prolific Nineteenth Century Naval historian, Nelson is a timeless biography of a British symbol whose fame is immortal.

Praise for John Knox Laughton

‘Laughton created modern naval history.’ – Andrew Lambert

Sir John Knox Laughton (1830–1915) was a British naval historian who wrote more than 900 naval biographies. He began his career as civilian naval instructor before becoming a professor of Modern History at King’s College London. Upon his Death John Know Laughton was buried at sea in the Thames Estuary.

As lover, wife and widow of Sir Walter Ralegh, Bess was the hidden force behind his spectacular public achievements, the stable point in his turbulent private life, and the shrewd creator of his reputation after his death.

Having resisted being married off in her teens, she began a passionate and illicit sexual relationship with Ralegh in her twenties.

Her intelligence and business acumen were exceptional, despite having no rights as a woman (twice she built a fortune from nothing), and her remarkable emotional strength sustained her through personal tragedy and political disasters that broke many others, including her own husband.

A woman in a man’s world, Bess’s ambitious pursuit of power and wealth, and justice for herself and her children, make compelling reading.

‘Anna Beer has lovingly restored Bess Ralegh to her rightful place among Elizabethan heroines. Brave, energetic, and resourceful to the point of audacity — Bess was a successful gambler against the odds. She rescued the reputation of her own husband, Sir Walter Ralegh, and now, four centuries later, Anna Beer has returned the favour.’ – Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

‘[Anna Beer’s] eye for detail is outstanding.’ – Sunday Times

Anna, who lives in Oxford, spends most of her time researching and writing books about interesting people who lived in interesting times, but she also teaches Literature and Creative Writing -and takes time out to travel whenever she can.

Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.

A WRITER TURNS DETECTIVE TO LEARN WHAT HER MOTHER'S LIFE HAD BEEN LIKE BEFORE ALZHEIMER'S STOLE HER MEMORIES. A TRUE STORY OF FORGIVENESS AND HEALING.

As fiercely independent Ruth struggles to stay self-reliant at the age of 86, each day brings her closer to an event that will alter her life forever. While her author daughter shifts through Ruth’s possessions prior to her move into a skilled nursing facility, she discovers a previously unseen photo from 1949 and realizes how little she knows of her mother’s life.

As Alzheimer’s continues to warp Ruth’s once sharp mind, she can no longer shed any light on the past. Yearning to know who her mother was as a person in her own right, the author painstakingly reconstructs Ruth’s life from photos, letters, public records and firsthand memories.

What emerges is a portrait of a bright, beautiful woman who is propelled through decades of broken promises and heartache, bouncing from one ill-fated relationship to the next, but always staying strong, always surviving. Through a timeline going back sixty years, the author gleans a much better understanding of the woman she had known only as Mom.

"SOUL-BARING AND HEART-WARMING." K. ANSBRO

First Place Winner 2016 CIPA EVVY AWARD in autobiography/memoir
Second Place Winner 2016 CIPA EVVY AWARD in religion/spirituality
"As the body gets weaker, the spirit gets stronger," Linda Kinnamon repeatedly tells her patients. Being a hospice nurse she spends her days caring for and visiting the terminally ill. But in the pre-dawn hours, as her patients near death, they occasionally pay her a visit instead.
Whether it’s perfume drifting through a room or a touch on the shoulder, the strength of spirit displayed at the end of life is as unique as the individual. Alchemy of the Afterlife is a memoir of life AFTER death based on Linda’s childhood as an orphan combined with her adult experiences as a hospice nurse. These encounters reveal both a glimmer of heaven and a flash of hell.
This is a child's story about surviving abuse and neglect, only to be comforted by a visit from her mother, a visit that took place four years after her mother’s death. It’s a nurse's story about patients of all beliefs, and their evolution from life to afterlife minus the harps and halos. Most of all, it’s an uplifting and universal story of the golden transformation we will all experience at death, a transformation with the heart of pure love.

We were "river rats" - that's what they called us. We lived in the bottoms, close to the railroad tracks and the Missouri River.

Nearly every year the river flooded and turned our dirt streets into creeks full of fish, snakes, and trash from towns upriver. Some years the Missouri took the whole bottom, rushing into our house so we had to get out fast with whatever we could carry. When the water went back down, we scraped mud off walls, scrubbed with strong bleach, and moved back in.

Mama did that year after year. She learned to deal with floods. But the snake pushed her over the edge. She didn't want to live in a house where snakes could come and go as they pleased. Daddy said we couldn't afford to live anywhere else. We owned the old house on River Street and some years the water didn't get in it at all.

It wasn't an argument, or even a discussion. Daddy made the decision.
Mama lived with it - and a whole lot more.

Snakes in the Kitchen is an early childhood memoir of growing up poor in the early 1950's, in Mokane Missouri. It's a story of one woman's efforts, against all odds, to pull her children out of the mud and into a house with indoor plumbing.

Mama never gave any thought to Women's Rights, but she knew she didn't have any. She didn't know anything about women's liberation, but she knew a man had always been in control of her life. Her father forced to quit school to take a job when she was thirteen. He refused to let her see the man she loved and pushed her into marrying a man she hardly knew.

She didn't know anything about equal pay for women, she just wanted a job so she could feed her children and keep a roof over their heads.

She was trapped in a loveless marriage with a husband was who harsh and openly unfaithful.
Divorce was a disgrace to her family and friends, but she faced the disapproval and held her head high as she built a new life for herself and her children.

Snakes in the Kitchen includes many award winning biographical stories published here for the first time. The title chapter, Snakes in the Kitchen, won the top Midwest Writer's Workshop non-fiction award in 2013. The second chapter, The Day Grandma called the Doctor, took the same award in 2015. The author was recorded telling Mama and the New TV and the video was used as part of a Smithsonian sponsored exhibit. Other chapters won the Storyteller Magazine Award and the Lt. Fred Guidry Search for Excellence Award.

"The Wonder Years" meets "The Notebook" in this true-life coming-of-age love story.

If you remember your first love, your first date and your first kiss, then Feels Like the First Time will take you back to those moments. Shawn met Dawn when she moved in next door in 1976. Soon, they were best friends, then became each other's first loves. Shawn was outgoing but bookish, Dawn, beautiful and reserved. Their storybook romance came to an end when Dawn's parents forbid them to see each other.

They obeyed - for 27 years, until a chance meeting swept them up in a storm of emotions and memories. Can the sweet bond of first love not only survive into middle age, but flourish?

Feels Like the First Time lets you share in the magic of young love in small town America in the 1970s. No matter how much the world changes, some things – timeless music, high school dances, making out in the backseat of a Chevy Vega, and of course true love – will always remain the same.

"Both Sides Now," the best selling sequel to "Feels Like the First Time" is also available for the special price of just $2.99 this week. "Both Sides Now" tells of the same events, but from Dawn's perspective.

Once Upon a Lyme... A Tale of Two Journeys tells the story of a mysterious illness that stumped a parade of doctors, and the new-found discipline of writing that became the unexpected by-product of years of misdiagnoses. After seeing over two dozen physicians, writing five novels and self-publishing one, Once Upon a Lyme was a personal story that the author felt had to be shared. The book chronicles Hamilton’s search for an answer to a far-flung roster of symptoms and the creative outlet she turned to in case she became bedridden.

It took nine years from the onset of the symptoms to learn the name of her nemesis. Because the diagnosis was so long in coming, by that time she had late-stage Lyme, which is next to impossible to cure. Her only hope at that point was going the "alternative" route, which required leaving normal and taking a huge leap of faith, resorting to methods that are part new-age, part medieval. She would soon learn getting the correct diagnosis was only half the battle.

Throughout her struggles, three things saved her from complete despair: an overabundance of willpower, an appreciation of the absurd, and writing. Her experiences during that time make for a candid, comic and sometimes harrowing look at what she endured at the hands of medical professionals. What she got for her trouble was a craft that has allowed her to channel her overactive imagination into writing books, which is now her sole occupation—besides fighting Lyme.

Though there are moments of despair, Once Upon a Lyme is ultimately about triumph of the spirit over disease, the courage to keep fighting, and the sense of humor necessary to prevail against adversity.

From Ice and Snow is a fictional memoir, sequel to The Protest. Jane Bernard lost her 12-year-old twin daughters to a religious hijacking perpetrated by their father, Reverend Logan Churlick. Jane is heartbroken and embittered by the loss, causing her to jeopardize her once-happy marriage with her great love, Bolivar Bernard. When her daughters are 18, Bekah reaches out to her mother. But Bekah’s freedom from her father’s influence has a price: her twin sister Darcy wants nothing to do with Bekah and spurns Jane. Churlick thwarts Jane’s attempt to reunite with Darcy, and fueled by Bekah’s allegiance with her mother, his obsession to possess Jane grows more twisted. Will Churlick be successful in keeping Jane and her daughter from reconnecting? Will Jane regain her daughters only to lose Bolivar? Will the strategy Jane sees as her only chance to save the marriage she has all but destroyed work?

If you want to learn about one of history’s most fascinating minds and uncover some of his secrets of imagination—secrets that enabled him to invent machines light years ahead of his time and literally bring light to the world—then you want to read this book.

Imagination amplifies and colors every other element of genius, and unlocks our potential for understanding and ability.

It’s no coincidence that geniuses not only dare to dream of the impossible for their work, but do the same for their lives. They’re audacious enough to think that they’re not just ordinary players.

Few stories better illustrate this better than the life of the father of the modern world, a man of legendary imaginative power and wonder: Nikola Tesla.

In this book, you’ll be taken on a whirlwind journey through Tesla’s life and work, and not only learn about the successes and mistakes of one of history’s greatest inventors, but also how to look at the world in a different, more imaginative way.

Read this book now and learn lessons from Nikola Tesla on why imagination is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and insights into the real “secret” to creativity, as explained by people like Jobs, Picasso, Dali, and Twain.

"An extraordinary narrative"

"Carefully pieced together from personal and official documents, oral testimony and material objects"

“A gripping and moving story, with excellent illustrations."

A true story of love and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Second World War

Minny leaves Germany on a bitterly cold morning in December 1946 and travels to England to marry Jim, a British Intelligence Corps soldier in the Allied armies that defeated the Nazi regime in 1945 and occupied the devastated nation. She has survived British and American bombs and witnessed the destruction of Aachen, her ancient and beautiful city. How will a German woman cope in austere post-war Britain, where she is still regarded as the enemy? Illustrated with almost 100 images and original documents, The Bride's Trunk describes the adventures of an unremarkable piece of luggage and three generations of its owners, whose journeys across Europe are determined by the turbulent events of twentieth century history.

Some comments on 'The Bride's Trunk'

“An extraordinary narrative, pieced together from original documents, about a couple who were determined not to let war defeat them. 70 years ago the British government passed a law allowing British men to marry German women, but little thought was given to the life that those German women would find, in the aftermath of the second world war. This heart-warming tale brings alive childhood and adolescence in pre-war Germany, followed by a new life in the old enemy country."

Jackie Ashley, President of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, and journalist

Who Is Andrea Michaels? What Does She Know that We Don't?

Andrea Michaels is literally one of the backbones of the special events industry. Launching her business when there was no formalized or defined marketplace, she was and still is a trailblazer, pioneering the way for others to follow. Always on the cutting edge of the business, she has stacked up a pile of firsts (and 50 prestigious awards) in her legendary career - from initiating corporate branding and messaging into events and interactive themes that create experiences for the guests to entering the international market ahead of her colleagues and incorporating never-before-used technology into her events, just to name a few. That alone should make her extraordinary, but she runs much deeper. Noted as one of the most caring and giving educators of our time, she has traveled the world to teach others not just her art and craft but to help them learn from her own mistakes. How did this genius evolve? Why is she so revered by all her peers? What does she know that we don't? Reflections of a Successful Wallflower can only be compared to reading Andrea's diaries. This first inductee into the industry Hall of Fame shares, openly and candidly, not only the public wunderkind but the inner woman. Discover the workings of one of the foremost event producers in the world. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll be in disbelief and fascinated at the same time. She is a storyteller, and her stories and her life are great lessons for everyone.What Her Peers Are Saying ..."She is a leader, mentor and educator to virtually the entire industry. Andrea Michaels has set the extraordinary standard against which all special event professionals strive to be measured!" -Steve Kemble, America's Sassiest Lifestyle Guru"This book is a life lesson, a success road map and a laugh-out-loud look into one of the great business and creative minds working today." - John Klymshyn, Author of How To Sell Without Being A JERK! and The Ultimate Sales Managers' Guide"Meet Andrea Michaels and enjoy, learn and sometimes marvel at the stories she tells from her more than 30 years in the event production business. Her stories are entertaining at their surface, but read deeply and find the lessons to be learned planning events vicariously through Andrea's accounts. By the end of this fun read, it will be apparent how it is that Andrea Michaels seems to have never met a sow's ear she couldn't make into a silk purse. It's that special talent -- no, it's her Gift that has made her such a sought-after producer and guest speaker at event conferences worldwide. "You'll laugh at some of her stories, a few might raise some ire at the incredible unreasonableness of some of her clients, but all will inspire you to look beyond the task toward the 'what marvelous thing can this become if...'" -Robert Abbott, Director - Corporate Marketing Communication, Mueller Co."Andrea has such fascinating stories to tell ... I think this will be essential reading for anyone who is in the business and can relate to all her experiences and how she lived and laughed through them." -James D. Murphy, Vice President, Asia Pacific Operations,George P. Johnson"Andrea's work is truly outstanding and whilst she is imitated by many, she is equaled by few." -Sally Webb, Managing Director, The Special Event Company, London, England and North Carolina.

#1 BEST SELLER IN ADOPTION! OVER 200 000 COPIES SOLD*

“Can you keep a secret? Can you keep a secret? I don’t suppose you can. You mustn’t laugh; you mustn’t smile, but... do the best you can.”

How does a mother cope when she is forced to walk away from her three children and never see them again? That is what happened to JB’s mother, Myrtle. Eventually, rescued from her despair by tall, dark and handsome George Rowley who fell in love her, Myrtle started a new life and had seven more children. She buried the grief of losing her first children deep within and kept her pain secret. JB and her siblings were unaware of the existence of Myrtle’s first three children until after she died. Desperate to know how such a thing could happen to a devoted and caring mother, JB went on a journey to find out. What she discovered was a heartbreaking story of loss. It was a long time before JB was able to work out that her mother kept her early life and her first family secret out of misplaced guilt and shame. To redress that, JB decided to tell the whole world her mother’s secret. 'Whisper My Secret' is a proud declaration that Myrtle did nothing deserving of guilt or shame.

Book length is approximately 57 000 words.

'Mother of Ten', the sequel to 'Whisper My Secret', is now available.

*This figure includes copies downloaded during free promotions.

A 23-year old woman is given the job of a lifetime by a media agency; over the next three decades, she will travel to 65 countries. This is her story...

Told with humor and insight into countries where she lived for months, The World and I is comprised of the real adventures of Cassia Meare as she jumps from country to country for work and learns to rely on herself.
In the first volume she is sent to Algiers right after being hired and gets a scorpion as a marriage proposal in the Sahara; she travels from glorious St Petersburg all the way to Sakhalin in Russia just as it is emerging from communism -- without forgetting to stop at the casinos of Siberia; she falls in love with Istanbul and meets crazy Sergei and his gun in Kiev; she works with a very handsome man in Vladivostok -- only to travel on with him to stunning Rajasthan.
Get an insider's view on Madrid, Rome, Palermo and find out more about Warsaw, Prague and what is in Azerbaijan.
There will be information on culture, sights, history -- but most of all there will be the people Meare finds along the way, often the most memorable things about her trips.
You'll laugh, discover things about places you might never go to, or which have changed beyond recognition since then. You'll also find out about some of the world's most beautiful spots.
Just don't expect this book to teach you how to travel for less...

Unsinkable is the definitive memoir by film legend and Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds.

In Unsinkable, the late great actress, comedienne, singer, and dancer Debbie Reynolds shares the highs and lows of her life as an actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age, anecdotes about her lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Taylor, her experiences as the foremost collector of Hollywood memorabilia, and intimate details of her marriages and family life with her children, Carrie and Todd Fisher.

A story of heartbreak, hope, and survival, “America’s Sweetheart” Debbie Reynolds picks up where she left off in her first memoir, Debbie: My Life, and is illustrated with previously unpublished photos from Reynolds’s personal collection.

Debbie Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, at the age of 84, just one day after the death of her daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher.

The first major biography of a truly formidable king, whose reign was one of the most dramatic and important of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale.

Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in "Braveheart"). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled to the Holy Land; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers and constructing a magnificent chain of castles. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments; notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.The longest-lived of England's medieval kings, he fathered fifteen children with his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, and, after her death, he erected the Eleanor Crosses—the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.


In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny—a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him.


The result is a sweeping story, immaculately researched yet compellingly told, and a vivid picture of medieval Britain at the moment when its future was decided.

In the bestselling tradition of Smashed and Glass Castle, this raw, eye-opening memoir tells the powerful story of Elizabeth Garrison’s fractured childhood, descent into teenage drug addiction, and struggle to overcome nearly insurmountable odds. Elizabeth invites the reader behind the closed doors of a picture-perfect Christian family to reveal a dark, hidden world of child abuse, domestic violence, and chilling family secrets all performed in the name of God under the tyrannical rule of her father. Like countless teenage girls, Elizabeth turns to drugs and alcohol to escape. With smack-you-in-the-face honesty, Elizabeth chronicles the dark realities and real-life horrors of teenage drug abuse, living on the streets, foster homes, and treatment centers. She paints an unsparing portrait of scratching and clawing her way out of the grips of child abuse, addiction, and betrayal to find the strength within herself to save her own life.

This book contains adult language.

Drifting in the Push is a fast-paced, comical romp that takes the reader on a journey through the unintentional adventures of one man’s reality. From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to Alaska, missteps, stubborn obstacles, and fate are his constant companions, along with an offbeat assortment of entertaining characters. From time to time, his escapades include his two childhood friends—Bryan, who follows him to the unforgiving Arctic, and Shane, who steers him down an unpleasant alley or two. Amid this craziness, he picks up another friend—Hank, his devoted dog. This chronological series of interdependent short stories will take you from fear to love, amusement to surprise, and it just might occasionally leave a tear in your eye.

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
 
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

Praise for Yes, Chef
 
“Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor.”—Ruth Reichl
 
“Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style—in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much.”—Gabrielle Hamilton
 
“Plenty of celebrity chefs have a compelling story to tell, but none of them can top [this] one.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Elegantly written . . . Samuelsson has the flavors of many countries in his blood.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Red Rooster’s arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food.”—President Bill Clinton

A touching and hilarious memoir by the author of the forthcoming book, In Such Good Company, is 100 percent Carol Burnett--funny, irreverent, and irresistible.
 
Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses and performers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen each week by millions of adoring fans and won twenty-five Emmys in its remarkable eleven-year run. Now, in This Time Together, Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching or memorable story after another--reading it feels like sitting down with an old friend who has wonderful tales to tell.
 
In engaging anecdotes, Carol discusses her remarkable friendships with stars such at Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, and Julie Andrews; the background behind famous scenes, like the moment she swept down the stairs in her curtain-rod dress in the legendary “Went With the Wind” skit; and things that would happen only to Carol--the prank with Julie Andrews that went wrong in front of the First Lady; the famous Tarzan Yell that saved her during a mugging; and the time she faked a wooden leg to get served in a famous ice cream emporium. This poignant look back allows us to cry with the actress during her sorrows, rejoice in her successes, and finally, always, to laugh.


From the Hardcover edition.

A man of reason and vigorous discourse, and a renowned professor of literature and philosophy, C.S. Lewis, always “Jack” to family and friends, never shied from intellectual debate, and through his written works encouraged others to wrestle with the difficult questions of faith.

A master of visual illustration and allegory, Lewis wrote with the intuitive understanding that his readers wrestled with the same questions about the Christian story, about pain, suffering, and notions of Heaven and Hell, as he himself had wrestled. He also understood that others found reason and imagination to be incompatible aspects of an understanding of God and the universe.