eBooks de Biografías históricas universales, página 11 de 911

Arabic erotic literature has a long and rich history, which goes back as far as the ninth century. Far from being the pursuit of prurient pornographers, eroticism and sexuality received considerable attention from scholars.Written by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201 - 1274), one of the leading scientists of the age, The Sultans Sex Potions is part of a relatively small group of works devoted to aphrodisiacs, as well as sexual stimulants, sexual practices and positions. Sober and measured in tone, the work was intended to be a manual, which would allow the patient to dispense with the services of a physician. Written at the request of the ruler, its potions, electuaries, syrups and enemas enjoyed a royal warrant of appointment to arouse the lust for coitus and enhance sexual potency.This bilingual volume includes a critical edition of three manuscripts (Berlin, Cairo and Glasgow) and is accompanied by a translation, as well as an introduction to Arabic erotic literature, a biography of the author and extensive indexes.

Captures moments in time like nothing else.RICHARD E. GRANTIntimate . . . and rarely predictable.MICHAEL PALINCompletely fascinating and inspiring. Completely addictive.STEPHEN FRYA volume to treasure, sigh and snigger over. BIDISHAAn engrossing collection of the most remarkable diary writing - by the famous, infamous and everyman alike - curated by the creator of the globally bestselling Letters of Note.What is more intimate than the diary? Across human history, people have kept these repositories of their most unvarnished truths, poignant hopes, hidden desires and deepest fears. In Diaries of Note, Shaun Usher collects 366 captivating diary entries, each with a different author.The diary welcomes all to its pages. Here we encounter reflections from world leaders, artists, scientists, writers and icons of film and music - including Alan Rickman, Frederick Douglass, Virginia Woolf, Louis Theroux and Emma Thompson - alongside those who were never illuminated by fame, but whose writings reveal them as extraordinary. Beautifully illustrated, this book is a testament to the power of personal narratives, reflecting and encapsulating our deepest, and often most secret, emotions.

After a devastating spinal cord injury Fergus Farrell was told hed never walk again. He refused to believe it.What followed was a brutal reckoning not just with his body, but with his identity as a man. He lost his business, his marriage and, for a time, his will to go on. But through the darkness, Fergus found something deeper than hope: determination.One year later, he walked 206km across Ireland. And that was just the start. From an attempted row across the unforgiving North Atlantic to tireless advocacy for spinal injury research, Fergus has redefined what it truly means to be strong. This is more than a story of recovery. Its about resilience, reinvention and finding out who you really are when everything else falls away.A formidable reminder that no matter how tough the challenge, the strength to walk through it lies within Niall BreslinA powerful, unflinching account of resilience, this book grips you from the first page and refuses to let go David GillickThis book gives great insight into his journey, and his resilience and mental strength are inspirational Bernard Jackman

1 NIGHT. 1,807 DAYS. AND EVERY SINGLE MINUTE IN BETWEEN.In July 2019, Bláthnaid Raleigh was enjoying a typical night out in Galway with friends and a few acquaintances from Mullingar. At the house party that followed, a night that had started like any other took a sinister turn when Jonathan Moran attacked and raped her.Back in their hometown of Mullingar, Blathnaid would spend the next five years living with the after-effects of that night, she and her family left in limbo, wracked with uncertainty. Meanwhile, her attacker, unable to be identified for legal reasons, continued his life as if nothing had happened working, socialising and playing rugby.On 1 July 2024, Moran was sentenced to eight years in jail, without ever offering a moments remorse. What would this verdict mean for Blathnaid and the life that she was forced to put on hold? Would this be the day that the old Blathnaid would re-emerge? Could it ever be that simple?Aftermath is raw, powerful and a truly devastating account of a system that left Blathnaid feeling forgotten, irrelevant and lost. In an Ireland that claims to be victim-centric, Blathnaids words provide the ultimate and unequivocal victim impact statement.

Bouncing Back is the inspiring story of Michael Flynn, a struggling furniture salesman from Pearse Street, who reinvented himself to become Irelands favourite retailer. With the inner city that shaped him at its core, its the story of his enduring close bond with his family and the communities that have supported him along the way.With Dublin heart and entrepreneurial spirit, this hilarious and, at times, heartbreaking memoir is filled with joy and sadness, love and lifelong friendships, mad adventures and meaningful moments.Bouncing Back is a testament to never giving up, no matter what life throws your way.

50th Anniversary EditionEverest the highest peak in the world, the ultimate challenge to a mountaineers skill and endurance. It had been climbed before, but never like this. Chris Bonington and his team had ambitions to climb it the hard way.Yet before Bonington and his team set out in August 1975, even their well-wishers gave them only a fiftyfifty chance of success. The South West Face of Everest had already defeated five expeditions, including one led by Bonington himself.Everest the Hard Way is an exhilarating story of courage, endurance and teamwork. Boningtons narrative celebrates the big moments and recreates the excitement and danger of the climb with vivid immediacy. He shares the logistical problems involved in keeping a large expedition moving, and the very real psychological ones of balancing and pairing lead climbers and giving each a chance to make the route on the face. He describes the constant avalanche threat which made the Western Cwm more dangerous than the ever-treacherous Ice Fall, and explains how lowering the sites of camps 4 and 5 solved a supply problem and kept the upward momentum for the attack on the notorious thousand-foot-tall Rock Band at 27,000 feet which had barred the way to the summit for all previous attempts.Drawing upon his experiences and the first-hand accounts and diaries of his fellow climbers, Bonington gives us the first-time jitters and unexpected emergencies, the pressures of balancing egos and skills, the meticulous planning, and the undiluted joy of mastering a seemingly impossible climb which would see Britons stand on the summit of the world for the first time. It is an immensely absorbing narrative, stunningly augmented with photographs and maps, with eleven appendices on everything from communications and equipment to food and medicine.How Boningtons team climbed on Everest in 1975 bears no relation to how Everest is climbed fifty years on, with endless resources and helicopter support. It was much riskier in 1975. Weather forecasts were threadbare and, although equipment was improving, it was much more basic than today, so the risk of frostbite was much greater for mountaineers in the 1970s. These climbers, the best of their generation, were leading hard new ground in the only style which gave them a meaningful chance of success. Chris Boningtons Everest the Hard Way is a beautiful, fascinating and tragic story of their legendary achievement.

As Dr Eger would say, "you cannot heal what you do not feel." We applaud Breda for having the courage to face her past so that all of us who read this book will connect to our own purpose and story. Jordan Engle, grandson of Edith Eger, author of The ChoiceBreda OTooles early life was marked by abandonment. When she sought help, she entered a mental health system that continued the pattern misdiagnosing her, medicating her into silence, binding her in a straitjacket for 11 days and subjecting her to 29 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy.Refusing to be defined by the failures of the system, Breda fought to reclaim her health, her voice and her life. Through courage, determination and a relentless search for dignity, she uncovered a sense of self that had long been buried.Unseen is the story of a mental health system that too often ignored the human being at its heart. More so, it is the story of the fierce capacity of the human spirit to heal when we are safely allowed to reveal and feel our pain so that we can move forward with hope.When a dysfunctional system adds trauma to the already traumatised, it takes a powerful person to overcome it and thrive. Breda OToole is a shining example to us all of the courage of the human heart.Fiona Brennan, author of The Positive Habit

Anne Marie Allen was fifteen when she was accepted onto a cookery school course that promised real qualifications and a future in the career of her dreams. Seeking a better life, she moved to the calm and peaceful countryside of the west of Ireland. However, her happiness was short-lived as it became clear she had been tricked instead into a life of domestic servitude to the members of the Opus Dei cult.She was then whisked away to Rome where she signed her life away with vows to serve. What followed were years of misery in slavery, forced celibacy and traumatic physical suffering under an ambitious and tyrannical institution that demanded perfection, humiliation and pain.Eventually her family managed to coerce a visit home where they refused to let her return to the Order, and where they began the long process of deprogramming Anne Marie a task that has been a life-long struggle. Serve is a truly remarkable story of strength and resilience in the face of religious zealotry.

The sale of Chelsea Football Club in 2022 was one of the highest-profile and most controversial sports transactions of all time. In the shadow of Russias invasion of Ukraine, what unfolded after Roman Abramovich was forced to put his beloved club up for sale would change English football for ever. Under the threat of bankruptcy and ruin, Chelsea pulled off a complex transaction in a quarter of the time many analysts would normally set aside for such a deal. Sanctioned is the definitive account of this unique period.Through unprecedented access to Abramovich himself and further interviews with a star-studded footballing cast, Nick Purewal unfolds a wide-ranging tale of political sanctions, hushed negotiations and Cold War-style geopolitics, all told against a backdrop of war on the edge of Europe.From the clubs owners to its staff, players and supporters, via UK government intervention, dramatic peace talks and even a foul-play poisoning episode, Sanctioned chronicles ninety-five extraordinary days in English football.

Set against the spectacular mountains and lakes of northern Greece, this remarkable book describes Julian and Julias odyssey as they meet others on similar quests to find home, be they bears, pelicans or humans. Utterly relevant to our times. Lee Durrell, MBE The story of a courageous leap into a new life.___ In the summer of 2000, Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia found themselves disillusioned with city life. Overwhelmed by long commutes, they stumbled upon a book about Prespa, Greece a remote corner of Europe filled with stone villages, snow-capped mountains and wildlife, which they would soon call home. Prespa is a crossroads. Where three countries come together around two huge lakes, where limestone collides with granite and heat-pulsing Mediterranean ecosystems meet their colder, Balkan relatives. Here, languages, wartime histories and rivers converge, and pelicans, bears and people leave their footprints on the waters edge next to unexploded bombs. Lifelines is not only the tale of a courageous leap into a new life, but of seasons punctuated by unforgettable encounters, from a stare-down with a bear surrounded by spring wildflowers to a deep-winter meeting with fourteen wrens sheltering above a frozen doorway. And into this place encircled by mountains, Julian seamlessly weaves an intricate web of stories of conflict and possibility; of refuge lost and found; of the wild lifelines that connect us all as we move through the world seeking a home. ___ Knockout beautiful... a lifeline in itself. Keggie Carew, author of DadlandIve been wondering for several years whether it was now possible for anyone writing in English to write a great book about living in Greece. Well, here it is. John Kittmer, former British Ambassador to Greece Quite magical... A book that will refresh your soul. Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm

In June 2019, Valerie French Kilroy was brutally murdered by her husband at their home near Westport, while her three young sons lay in bed. For her brother David and the rest of her family, it was the beginning of a battle against a system unprepared to protect the three innocent children whose father remains their legal guardian, despite being convicted of their mothers murder.From the devastating shock of hearing of his sisters death to the multiple criminal trials before the guilty verdict was delivered, David describes the issues his family faced in the aftermath of Valeries murder. He provides a deeply personal insight into Valeries marriage and the hidden struggles she faced in the run-up to her murder.This book is both a heartfelt tribute to Valeries life and legacy and an urgent call to rethink the way our society responds to domestic homicide.

Ballybunion to the River Kwai is the remarkable account of Don Kennedys harrowing experience as an Irish prisoner of war in Singapore and Thailand from 194245. Vividly narrated by Dons son Fergus, this is the first account of an Irish citizen as a POW along the infamous River Kwai, offering fresh insights into a chapter of history that the world presumes it knows.More than a biography, this is a journey through the darkest times to find light and love. Its a story that promises to touch hearts, provoke thought, and, perhaps most importantly, remind us of the enduring strength and resilience of the human spirit.

A devious speakeasy owner. A crooked undertaker. A cunning bartender. A psychotic cabbie. A hapless greengrocer. A notorious thug.And one Irishman who came to be known as Iron Mike.Set around New Yorks Prohibition-era speakeasy scene in the 1930s in what became known as the most grotesque chain of events in New York criminal history, The Many Murders of Michael Malloy is the tragic true story of six low-rent, desperate and extraordinarily incompetent murderers and one lonely Irish emigrant of exceptional fortitude and resilience.Poisoned, frozen, knocked down twice Malloy survived it all, until he didnt.This is the utterly compelling, stranger-than-fiction story of the most infamous Irish murder youve never heard of.

50th Anniversary Edition. Paperback.In the sharply formal conversations of the stonemen, the bittersweet flavour of provincial Ireland is presented with neither sentiment nor adornment. William Trevor, The GuardianThe men who have gone before us have left us a heritage to be proud of; and we feel our own contribution has been for the good. Seamus Murphy, from the preface to Stone Mad.In Stone Mad Seamus Murphy tells the story of his seven years spent as an apprentice to the stone carving trade, the growing knowledge of the challenges and joys of stone and of the men who worked it. His artistic feeling for the quality responded to his workmates reverence for the well made thing. The result is a book of surpassing beauty, full of warmth, humour and profound perception.

On a warm night in December 1977, David Holden, chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times, landed in Cairo to report on crucial peace talks between Egypt and Israel, an epochal moment in global politics. Shortly after dawn, his body was found dumped on a dusty roadside. He had been shot with a single bullet through the heart.Who killed Holden and why? These were the questions pursued for a year by the newspapers Insight team, overseen by legendary editor Harold Evans. Before he died in 2020, Evans said that their failure to solve the case was the biggest regret of his long career.Now, a member of the original Insight team has joined forces with a young investigative journalist from todays Sunday Times to resume the quest. Their search leads them into a world of intrigue and betrayal, exposing the fatal crossovers between journalism and spying.Meticulously researched and grippingly told, Murder in Cairo reveals the truth of one of the most enigmatic cold case mysteries of the past fifty years.

What really makes the royal family tick?Its a question that royal watchers have pondered for as long as the monarchy has existed. And who better to ask than the army of servants and staff past and present who feed and clothe the royals, organise their days, polish their shoes, carry the deer and pheasants they shoot and even put the toothpaste on their toothbrushes?From medieval times, when the Groom of the Stool oversaw the monarchs lavatorial exploits, and courtiers accompanied the king and queen to bed on their wedding night and made bawdy remarks until ushered out of the room, below-stairs staff have had a unique insight into the lives of their royal masters.In this lively and colourful history, royal expert Tom Quinn goes behind palace doors to give a compelling glimpse of Britains royals, ancient and modern. Here you will find the tales of the equerry who threatened to throw Queen Victoria out of her own stables, the junior footman who had to change his name on the orders of the queen, and the lady in waiting who, with Prince Philips mother Princess Alice, regularly set fire to her rooms at Buckingham Palace.Perhaps most intriguing of all, we see, through the eyes of serving and recently retired staff, how todays royals live including how the relationship between Meghan and Harry and William and Kate started with high hopes and descended into bitterness and anger.

*FROM THE JOINT WINNER OF THE 2025 FORWARD PRIZE* A perceptive exploration of poetry, race, and otherness from one of our most promising voices in criticism.Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in the north of England to Sri Lankan Tamils, and moved to the United States five years ago. Considering identity in both its political and psychological senses - as these concepts fuse, or fail to, at different times and in different places - he leaps adventurously between memoir and criticism, understanding his life through poetry, and vice versa. Ranging from Andrew Marvell to Divya Victor, he writes both about and through poems, discussing Sri Lanka; experiences of racism and resilience; intergenerational trauma; pandemic parenting in an autism family; relationships shaped by the internet; growing up with a speech impediment and being sent by ones aspirational brown parents to elocution lessons; and the relative invisibility of South Asians in Western television and film. This electric, compelling hybrid memoir discovers a new way of writing about the self and also literature.

On 22 May 2024, Rishi Sunak stood outside 10 Downing Street and announced an early election, in an attempt to catch his opponents by surprise. Just minutes later, Tory hearts sank, with images of the Prime Minister soaking in the rain instantly defining his hapless campaign. The next six weeks delivered more mistakes, a betting scandal, apocalyptic Tory polls, bitter backroom arguments and finally the worst result in the Conservative Partys 190-year history.Keir Starmers Labour, meanwhile, stormed to victory with one of the biggest landslides on record after fourteen years in the wilderness. But the party won with its fewest votes in almost a decade, raising questions about how popular Starmer really was. Scotlands voters abandoned the SNP, Ed Daveys Lib Dems surged to their best election ever and Nigel Farage once again blew up the Conservative Partys plans.This gripping account by seasoned Westminster journalists Tim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth tells the full inside story of the key tactics and powerful forces that delivered the most seismic upheaval in a generation. What role did Starmers character play in his partys success? How did Labours election machine engineer such a devastatingly efficient vote? Was there anything Sunak could have done to avert disaster? What does it all mean for the future of Britain?Blending exclusive interviews and explosive accounts from key players, Landslide sets out to answer these questions and more, revealing a dramatic and sometimes disturbing picture of British politics at a turbulent time.

Brighid Biddy McLaughlin, the acclaimed Irish journalist and storyteller, has endured unthinkable tragedythe murder of her beloved sister Siobhan and the devastating drowning of her husband. Yet, in the face of overwhelming grief, McLaughlin refuses to be consumed by darkness. From behind the half-door of her enchanting Dalkey cottage, in exquisite and honest prose, McLaughlin reflects upon the cherished memories evoked by the objects surrounding her, carrying the reader along on a journey of grief, resilience and hope. From the delicate Madeleine tray that whispers Siobhans name to her own folk art illustrations that dance across the pages, McLaughlins memoir is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of storytelling to heal even the deepest wounds.As the late John B. Keane once remarked, Biddy had been a storyteller all her life. In drawings, words and painting, she has captured the tales of common and not-so-common folk caught up in the maelstrom of life. McLaughlins memoir celebrates the people, places, and passions that sustained her: her unconventional background, her bohemian friends, her love of art and cooking, and the solace found within the walls of her cottage.Tales of a Patchwork Life is a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration and comfort. It offers a powerful reminder of the extraordinary strength that lies within.

Uma biografia viva e fascinante de Frida Kahlo, uma mulher que continua a despertar curiosidadeA figura excecional de Frida Kahlo revelada, em todas as suas nuances e vitalidade por Gérard de Cortanze, o grande especialista na sua obra. O corpo ferido de Frida Kahlo, a sua vida de paixo e sofrimento, a sua incrivel energia criativa, so elementos que fazem dela uma figura excecional. Composto por uma serie de quadros vivos, este livro mergulha na intimidade da sua vida e da sua obra: acompanhamo-la tanto nos seus passeios como nos seus encontros com Diego Rivera ou Trotsky; estamos presentes quando repreende Breton e os surrealistas. Ouvimo-la a inventar palavras, praguejar e cantar. Gerard de Cortanze da-nos um relato vivo da sua arte, das suas reflexes sobre as origens, o que representam para ela a revoluço mexicana, o sangue, o hospital, a religio e a morte. Faz-nos entrar na terrivel beleza do seu universo. E este o sentido da sua obra: Frida Kahlo pinta apenas o que ve. Finalista do Premio Goncourt de Biografia 2023Um livro sublime pelo grande especialista frances de Frida, La vie