In 1975, at the age of forty, Richard Raskind, a renowned eye surgeon and highly ranked amateur tennis player, "died," and Renée Richards was "born," in what was to become the most public and highly scrutinized sex reassignment to date. It was not until Renée Richards was discovered playing in an amateur tennis tournament that the world took notice. Extensive media coverage and criticism thrust Renée reluctantly into the spotlight, sparking an intense public debate over her private life. Now, at seventy-two, Richards looks back and speaks frankly about all aspects of her complicated and often notorious life in this eye-opening, thought-provoking memoir. Richards' honest and compelling narrative explores the dichotomy between the successful life she lived as Dr. Richard Raskind, who seemed to have everything (devoted friends, a beautiful wife and son, a stellar record of academic and professional achievement, and outstanding athletic ability), and a secret life of struggle with a drive that could not be suppressed, even by years of psychotherapy and the force of a considerable will. Richards takes readers through her difficult decision to undergo surgery and the complex mixture of relief and continued frustration that came with the realization of her new identity. Discussing life after her transformation, Richards candidly relates the details, trials, and pleasures of her romantic life as well as fascinating stories about her tennis career, including her experiences as Martina Navratilova's coach. She also provides an intimate account of her difficult but rewarding relationship with her rebellious son: runaway teenager, high-stakes Vegas gambler, karate champion, and entrepreneur. She describes the deterioration of a once-loving marriage and the challenges of reclaiming her place at the forefront of her demanding medical specialty. Having lived as a woman almost as long as she lived as a man, Richards draws on a personal history that illuminates thirty years of remarkable change in society's attitude toward gender issues. Her absorbing and inspiring story, at once heartbreaking and uplifting, is a testimony to how far we have progressed in our ability to discuss and accept sexuality in all its iterations, as well as a reminder of how far we still must travel.

South African icon Pieter-Dirk Uys has been on stage over 7000 times. In this funny and tender memoir, Uys reveals the person behind the persona. Filled with stories and photographs of his family, this book also features Pieter's Paarlse ouma, his strudel-baking German Oma, his devotion to Sophia Loren, the invention of Evita Bezuidenhout, 40 years of satire, and the joys and sorrows of a remarkable life.

Delve into the Life and Times of Senor Vegas + 8 Innings

Cowan, Paul

"Never Quote the Weather to a Sea Lion (and other uncommon tales from the founder of the Big Apple Circus) is a celebration of Paul Binder's life in and around the circus. Drawing on thirty-five years with the show he created, the Big Apple Circus' founder and founding Artistic Director invites us inside the fence every kid peers through for an intimate look at the uncommon life of circus artists, their animal partners, and the roustabouts who spend their days in a world that is both close-knit and international, high-minded and low comedy, death-defying and ludicrous. Never Quote the Weather to a Sea Lion (and other uncommon tales from the founder of the Big Apple Circus) balances the weird and the workaday, the curious and the commonplace, the exhilaration and the exhaustion of life in the circus, with simple portrayals of ordinary people going about the business of achieving the extraordinary."--Publisher's description.

Osher Gunsberg, one of Australia's most loved celebrities, opens up in a powerful, dark, funny and heartwrenching memoir about life, love and living with mental illness. It's hard to remember a time when Osher Gunsberg (or Andrew G as he was then) wasn't on TV - he's just always been there, looking at ease in the spotlight, beaming a big smile, with a questionable haircut. He was there hanging out with The Offspring backstage at the Warped Tour on Channel V; announcing to a national audience of three million people that Guy Sebastian was our first Australian Idol; and later capturing the heart of the nation by hosting every season of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and now Bachelor in Paradise. But while everything looks great from the outside, the real picture has not always been quite so rosy. Osher has always known he's different to most people. Struggling with anxiety, panic attacks and weight issues since he was young, he tried for years to drink away the anxiety and depression. He ended up unemployed, divorced, suicidal and certifiable on the other side of the world, yet somehow he managed to put the broken pieces of his mind back together and make a life for himself again. He lives with a mental illness - and he's come to terms with it to live an authentic, rich and fulfilling life. A revealing, raw, funny and heartfelt memoir from one of Australia's most well-known and well-liked celebrities.

For more than two decades, ever since famed international film director Jean Renoir chose beautiful young actress Noreen Nash to play a coveted role in his second (and considered best) American film The Southerners, Renoir and his wife Dido Freiere were the cherished, intimate friends of Noreen and her husband, well known Hollywood "Physician to the Stars" Lee E. Siegel, M.D. In addition, the Siegels were weekly hosts at ongoing Sunday afternoon gatherings attended by a fascinating coterie of guests that, in addition to silver screen luminaries, invariably included infamous Tropic of Cancer author Henry Miller. And so the notorious Henry Miller became the Siegels' close friend as well. Jean Renoir, one of the foremost film directors of all time, and Henry Miller, topping the list of the most controversial figures in American literature ... both great friends of the Siegels. And yet the two men had never met. It might have been a foregone conclusion that they should become acquainted. Or should they? The two were quite different, as Noreen Nash explains. How would they get along? Would they take to one another or not? The Siegels debated the pros and cons of making the introduction, and ultimately decided affirmatively to connect the two giants. And so, we learn in TITANS OF THE MUSES, what happened when Henry met Jean. Due to its historical importance, characterizations, element of gossip and wealth of detail, TITANS OF THE MUSES presents readers with a fascinating, heretofore unseen portrait of two of the most noteworthy cultural figures of the 20th century.

Michael Wharton was of course 'Peter Simple' of the Daily Telegraph. He wrote two volumes of autobiography, this one, The Missing Will , and its sequel, The Dubious Codicil . Both are reissued in Faber Finds. The Missing Will describes his early life in Bradford, a lamentable career at Oxford, army service in India, years adrift in post-war Bohemia, and finishes on New Year's Day, 1957 when 'I sat down for the first time at my desk in the Daily Telegraph with one of the most appalling hangovers I have ever had in my life, and without a single idea in my head.' 'The jokes are bizarre and side-splitting, the sense of place and character haunting, and I don't expect to read a more honest piece of self-portraiture for some time to come.' Rivers Scott, Financial Times 'Everyone should read this book who want to know how an intelligent and civilised man can survive in the modern world.' Auberon Waugh 'Brilliant and hilarious' - Arthur Marshall

Hafftka began writing Conscious/Unconscious in 1973 and completed it in 2006. Conscious/Unconscious is a book of short stories narrated in the first person, weaving an inner life made real by paradoxes and conflicting drives. The 27 drawings created for this book add another dimension to the written words. Hafftka is a visual artist represented in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum, The NY MoMA, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and other museums. He has had one-man shows at numerous galleries in the U.S and abroad.

A son's personal exploration of one of the most influential--and troubled--artistic couples of the twentieth century Stephen Spender's life, with all its secrets, successes, and contradictions, is a vivid prism through which to view the twentieth century. He made friends with W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood while at Oxford, and together the three had wild adventures in Europe, where they became early critics of Hitler and the rise of fascism. Like his friends, Stephen was drawn to other men, yet he eventually married Natasha Litvin, an ambitious young concert pianist, and they started a family. Matthew Spender grew up in postwar England as the child of two celebrated artists deeply immersed in the political and cultural life of their times. Taught how to use adjectives by Auden and raised among an influential elite, Matthew led what might have been a charmed existence were it not for the tensions within his own household. His father, always susceptible to the allure of young men, was unable either to stop himself for the sake of his family or to reveal his secret; and his mother's suffering led her on a strange introspective quest of her own. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished letters and diaries, secret documents, and youthful memories, A House in St John's Wood is Matthew's remarkably clear-eyed attempt to make sense of the many conflicting messages of his unconventional youth and a deeply felt portrait of his magnetic father and guarded mother.

A Washington subpoena interrupts the promising career of a well-known movie gangster of the 40's & 50's. He goes to Rome, becomes an Italian movie star, mixes with real gangsters, Hollywood & international celebrities. Writes, finances, produces, directs & stars in a film about pigs that eat people -- with apologies to no one in particular. A fascinating autobiography reads like lively fiction in 199 pages. The actor's familiar face is on the cover under the title.

PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...

Following the surprise smash hit of last year, Being Jordan, comes the next instalment in the life of Katie Price, aka, Jordan, one of the most notorious celebrities in Britain today.Piers Morgan has described her as 'The biggest driver of sales of tabloid newspapers in the country.' A top glamour model since the age of 16, she was an instant hit as a Page 3 girl, was the F1 Jordan team mascot for four years and even spent 3 weeks with Hugh Hefner at the Playboy mansion. Yet behind Jordan lies Katie - the regular girl who likes to stay at home, ride her horses and play with her children - and her husband to be.This book takes up where the last ended, detailing what she really made of her jungle experiences, the truth behind the romance with Peter Andre, her excitement over their new baby, the glamour behind their up-coming wedding, and her heartbreak over the continuing medical traumas concerning her oldest son Harvey.This book promises to be by turns funny, biting, glamorous, disarmingly honest and utterly frank. This is the one celebrity autobiography of the year that promises you the no-holds barred truth from the woman who loves to speak her mind.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

Joel Shatsky and his wife Dorothy, who has multiple sclerosis, provide an accurate expression of the impact that this illness has upon its sufferers and their caregivers.

Memoir from stage, screen and daytime TV actor Jed Allan.

W L Mackenzie King is published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside.