Publisher: Brandon
Alice Taylor takes a nostalgic, loving look back to a family firmly rooted in tradition and humour and - in particular - the Christmas traditions of her childhood. With her unerring knack of bringing her readers into her home, her stories of a childhood Christmas are rich, warm and amusing, giving a wonderful insight into life as it was.
From the 1910 disappearance of New York heiress Dorothy Arnold to the 1977 vanishing of teenager Simone Ridinger, author Brunelle details both famous and lesser-known cases that remain unsolved. Board a luxury liner with Agnes Tufverson as she embarks on a European honeymoon before her mysterious 1933 disappearance over the Atlantic; follow Jean Spangler to a famous 1940s Hollywood nightclub as she arrives for a clandestine meeting in a private booth.Due to a strong belief that good girls didn't disappear, when authorities and family members were presented with missing women in the twentieth century, it was often assumed that they had simply ran away. Most investigations were funded by family members, and when women were found to be the victims of violent crime, they were faulted for placing themselves in dangerous situations. On the rare occasions when authorities investigated cases, they relied on interviews and cash trails in combination with rudimentary forensics such as blood typing and fingerprinting to find missing persons. For those reasons, many of the real stories from this time period have yet to be told. Featuring never-before-seen letters and documents, personal interviews, and genealogical research, alongside captivating storytelling, Brunelle delves deep into the lives of those who disappeared and the circumstances surrounding their cases.Show book
This enchanting collection of stories gathers together legends from across Scotland in one special volume. Drawn from The History Press' popular Folk Tales series, herein lies a treasure trove of tales from a wealth of talented storytellers. From the Spaeman's peculiar advice and a laird who is transformed into a frog, to a fugitive hiding in a dark cave and the stoor worm battling with Assipattle, this book celebrates the distinct character of Scotland's different customs, beliefs, and dialects, and is a treat for all who enjoy a well-told story.Show book
An American ethnomusicologist and her Indian collaborator recount their experiences researching Bhojpuri wedding songs in India. Stories are the backbone of ethnographic research. During fieldwork, subjects describe their lives through stories. Afterward ethnographers come home from their journeys with stories of their own about their experiences in the field. Storytime in India is an exploration of the stories that come out of ethnographic fieldwork. Helen Priscilla Myers and Umesh Chandra Pandey examine the ways in which their research collecting Bhojpuri wedding songs became interwoven with the stories of their lives, their work together, and their shared experience reading The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. Moving through these intertwined stories, the reader learns about the complete Bhojpuri wedding tradition through songs sung by Gangajali and access to the original song recordings and their translations. In the interludes, Pandey reads and interprets The Eustace Diamonds, confronting the reader with the ever-present influence of colonialism, both in India and in ethnographic fieldwork. Interwoven throughout are stories of the everyday, highlighting the ups and downs of the ethnographic experience. Storytime in India combines the style of the Victorian novel with the structure of traditional Indian village tales, in which stories are told within stories. This book questions how we can and should present ethnography as well as what we really learn in the field. As Myers and Pandey ultimately conclude, writers of scholarly books are storytellers themselves and scholarly books are a form of art, just like the traditions they study.Show book
Somaliland, a region of Somalia that lay in ruin from years of war, suffers some of the world's highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. But 15 years ago, Edna Adan fulfilled a lifelong dream by building a nonprofit hospital and nursing school to address the health needs of women. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.Show book
Frank DiMatteo was born into a family of mob hitmen. His father and godfather were shooters and bodyguards for infamous Mafia legends, the Gallo brothers. His uncle was a capo in the Genovese crime family and bodyguard to Frank Costello. Needless to say, DiMatteo saw and heard things that a boy shouldn't see or hear.From the old-school Mafia dons and infamous "five families" who called all the shots, to the new-breed "independents" of the ballsy Gallo gang who didn't answer to nobody, DiMatteo pulls no punches in telling what it's really like growing up in the mob. He describes getting his cheeks pinched by Crazy Joe Gallo until tears came down his face, dropping out of school and hanging gangster-style with the boys on President Street, and watching the Gallos wage an all-out war against wise guys with more power, more money, and more guns. And finally, DiMatteo reveals the shocking deathbed confessions that will blow the lid off the sordid deeds, stunning betrayals, and all-too-secret history of the American Mafia.Show book
Did an Irish monk discover America? Which rebel died of having a feckin' tooth pulled? And who in the name of Jaysus was responsible for the Pledge? If you've ever wondered how much of our rabble-rousing history is true, and how much a load of wojus oul' bull, then look no further. From the great to the gormless, this book is a hilarious parade of the life stories of Ireland's favourite heroes and gougers. Gathered in a collection of the best anecdotes from our chequered past, it will tell you everything you need to know about our writers, revolutionaries, and rogues. You never know - it might help you win the odd pub quiz as well... The Feckin' collection returns with a funny, original and quirky take on some of Ireland's most famous faces! Illustrated with photographs and cartoons, the book covers key Irish figures across the millenia like: - William Butler Yeats - Nobel Prize winning poet - Saint Patrick - Patron Saint of Ireland - Sir Ernest Shacklton - legendary Antarctic explorer - Jonathan Swift - the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels - Grace O'Mally - the pirate queen who ran Queen Elizabeth's troups ragged - Brian Boru - the last High King of IrelandAnd many more!Show book
