My Early Life

This memoir was first published in 1930 and describes the author's school days, his time in the Army, his experiences as a war correspondent and his first years as a member of Parliament.

A unique memoir by the current emir of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates

A repackaged edition of the revered author’s spiritual memoir, in which he recounts the story of his divine journey and eventual conversion to Christianity. C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—takes readers on a spiritual journey through his early life and eventual embrace of the Christian faith. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast, surveys his boarding school years and his youthful atheism in England, reflects on his experience in World War I, and ends at Oxford, where he became "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." As he recounts his lifelong search for joy, Lewis demonstrates its role in guiding him to find God.

Most biographies of Walt Disney portray him as a creative genius who revolutionized the entertainment industry during the first half of the twentieth century. While he did transform the medium of animation, quickly becoming a household name during his late thirties, many biographies tell the story of Walt Disney’s development in a historical vacuum, separate from the historical events happening around him. However, while Walt Disney was certainly a history-influencer, historical events happening in America and the world also shaped the entertainment pioneer he would become. As the twentieth century began, a new form of entertainment, “motion pictures,” would emerge, capturing the imagination of a young boy from Missouri. Over the next several years, Walt Disney would begin to hone his art skills, overcoming a number of hurdles including numerous relocations, a brutal paper route, a deployment to Europe in the days after World War One, numerous bankruptcies, and even homelessness. It was these adversities, along with the historical events that surrounded him, that would influence the man he would become. For the first time ever, The Origins of Walt Disney tells some important stories that help to flesh out the Disney history. How instrumental was Elias Disney’s career as a carpenter in Chicago? Why did the Disneys really leave Chicago to move to Marceline, Missouri? What types of jobs did Walt perform in France in the days following World War One? How was Walt influenced by the budding industry of animation in America? In addition to answering these questions, The Origins of Walt Disney also includes a tour of the newly restored Walt Disney Birthplace, a new museum located in the childhood home of Walt Disney in Chicago, Illinois!

The acclaimed actress and legendary singer, Yamaguchi Yoshiko (aka Li Xianglan, 1920-2014), emerged from Japan-occupied Manchuria to become a transnational star during the Second Sino-Japanese war. Born to Japanese parents, raised in Manchuria, and educated in Beijing, the young Yamaguchi learned to speak impeccable Mandarin Chinese and received professional training in operatic singing. When recruited by the Manchurian Film Association in 1939 to act in "national policy" films in the service of Japanese imperialism in China, she allowed herself to be presented as a Chinese, effectively masking her Japanese identity in both her professional and private lives. Yamaguchi soon became an unprecedented transnational phenomenon in Manchuria, Shanghai, and Japan itself as the glamorous female lead in such well-known films as Song of the White Orchid (1939), China Nights (1940), Pledge in the Desert (1940), and Glory to Eternity (1943). Her signature songs, including "When Will You Return?" and "The Evening Primrose," swept East Asia in the waning years of the war and remained popular well into the postwar decades. Ironically, although her celebrated international stardom was without parallel in wartime East Asia, she remained a puppet within a puppet state, choreographed at every turn by Japanese film studios in accordance with the expediencies of Japan's continental policy. In a dramatic turn of events after Japan's defeat, she was placed under house arrest in Shanghai by the Chinese Nationalist forces and barely escaped execution as a traitor to China. Her complex and intriguing life story as a convenient pawn, willing instrument, and tormented victim of Japan's imperialist ideology is told in her bestselling autobiography, translated here in full for the first time in English. An addendum reveals her postwar career in Hollywood and Broadway in the 1950s, her friendship with Charlie Chaplin, her first marriage to Isamu Noguchi, and her postwar life as singer, actress, political figure, television celebrity, and private citizen. A substantial introduction by Chia-ning Chang contextualizes Yamaguchi's life and career within the historical and cultural zeitgeist of wartime Manchuria, Japan, and China and the postwar controversies surrounding her life in East Asia.

CLEMENT BOUNCIN WILLIAMS - B.Sc (UWI), M.Sc (Reading Univ.-UK) DOB: AUGUST 13, 1948 Status: MARRIED Spouse: Cynthia V. Williams TWO(2) Children: Clement Jomo Jihan Adika Career Highlights ? High School Teacher: Mathematics and Natural Sciences ? Curriculum Development Officer and National Coordinator High School Sciences ? Caribbean Examination Council Examiner (Chemistry) ? Taxi and Tour Operator ? Actor, Artistic Director and Producer Community Theatre Group ? Author and Playwright I loved it all! Especially the portion about the entrepreneurial prowess of the authors mother!!!! AMAZING!!!Being first generation Kitty-Nevy I don't have the privilege of the oratory exchange between one generation and another about life on St. Kitts and Nevis in years gone by. This book provides me with that oratory exchange; ranging from food and beverage preparations to reasons for the creation of communities which I pass often on my current day's journey to aspects of our Health, Education, Economic and Political systems. Thus presenting great evidence of the tremendous strides our Federation has made over the decades. Whether from the Federation or the wider Caribbean this book will cause some to reminisce, others to be educated and for all to take pride in the wisdom of our people! Unoma Allen, M.Sc. Lecturer CFB College, St. Kitts.

Ferdinand Mount's parents belonged to what came to be called 'Hobohemia', 'a raffish subdivision of the upper class which, like some rare blue butterfly, was to be found only on the Wiltshire Downs'. His uncle was Anthony Powell, and this sparkling memoir reads like a non-fictional A Dance to the Music of Time. It throngs with characters of every shade and hue, from Harold Acton in Florence having his aesthetic flourishes crisply trumped by his outspoken mother, to the wild ways of Donald Maclean; from boneshaking cycling with Peter Fleming to discovering a 14-year-old Miriam Margolyes, 'an opulent tumble of dark curls and puppy fat' reclining on his landlady's hearth rug, hoping to pose for Augustus John. There is the strange nighttime behaviour of a certain royal, together with John Wells, Auberon Waugh and the repugnant and ill-mannered Oswald Mosley, and later on an intimate acquaintance with Margaret Thatcher and her acolytes ('Mr Parkinson would like a word, Prime Minister'). Among the beautifully turned anecdotes is sadness too- the loss of his grandfather, termed 'one of the Paladins of Gallipoli' by Churchill, and the unbearably slow and lonely death of his mother. Very much a memoir of rich experience and slowly gained maturity and happiness, it is a joy to read on every page.