Showing results for "The Race" in Biographies & Memoirs

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets - and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

The Vendée Globe Race is one of the world’s toughest sporting events: a single-handed, non-stop lap of the planet, with no assistance. The route takes competitors around the fringes of Antarctica, tackling terrifying conditions in the Southern Ocean before rounding Cape Horn. In My Element is the gripping and uncompromising story of Pip’s incredible journey, but it’s about so much more than sailing.

Sean Conway was stuck in a dead end life of his own making when he heard about a round-the-world cycling race. He was immediately inspired - but it was a huge undertaking, and he'd hardly been on a bike in years. Could he really cycle all the way round the world, solo and unsupported? Six months later, after completing a punishing training schedule and packing up everything he owned into boxes, Sean was in Greenwich Park, on the start line of the adventure of a lifetime.

In 1968, the Sunday Times organised the Golden Globe race - an incredible test of endurance never before attempted – a round the world yacht race that must be completed single-handed and non-stop, going into port for repairs or supplies would mean disqualification.This remarkable challenge inspired the daring to enter – with or without sailing experience. A Race Too Far is the story of how the race unfolded, and how it became a tragedy for many involved.

In unforgettable tales of innocence lost under African skies, we follow Godwin's awakening to the often savage struggle between Whites and Blacks, his horror when he is forced to fight in a civil war he detests, and his experiences as a journalist covering the country's violent transition to Black rule as Rhodesia's colonial era comes to an end and the new state of Zimbabwe is born from its bloody ashes. Mukiwa is a poignant, compelling memoir and an invaluable addition to the literature of southern Africa.

Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.

When it comes to insult comics, Bianca Del Rio is in a class by herself. Fierce, funny, and fabulous - a would-be love child sired by John Waters and birthed by Joan Rivers - Bianca sandblasted her name in the annals of pop culture on RuPaul's Drag Race. Thanks to her snarky frankness, impeccable comedic timing, and politically incorrect humour, she became the show's breakout star, winning its sixth season.

Failure Is an Option is the story of an average runner who sets out to discover just how far he can go. With the support (and misgivings) of his family, and aware that his quickest years are behind him, Matt Whyman leaves the Saturday morning 5K to push towards 100-mile ultramarathons and beyond. By slowing things down to run a very long way, he joins a growing number of men and women from all walks of life striving to do something extraordinary.

The son of a Black African father and a white American mother, Obama was only two years old when his father walked out on the family. Many years later, he receives a phone call from Nairobi: his father is dead. This sudden news inspires an emotional odyssey for Obama, determined to learn the truth of his father's life and reconcile his divided inheritance.

Dirty cops, trafficking rings, globe-spanning, nail-biting undercover detective work and the biggest takedown of the online narcotics market in the history of the internet. This is the story of how a single innovation has fuelled the world's criminal financial markets, and unleashed a cat-and mouse game like no other. Lords of Crypto Crime is the gripping, insider story of how a brilliant group of investigators took down the biggest kingpins of the dark web.

It’s a war filled with larger than life characters. There will be sledging, accusations of cheating, theft and performance enhancing drugs. And allegations that Australia was cheated out of a Guinness World Record. In the process of charting the scandal-plagued race to breed the world’s hottest chilli, the audio documentary lifts the lid on the subculture of ‘Chilli-heads’, hardcore chilli fans spread across the globe who compete in chilli eating and breeding competitions.

To one woman, running was more than a passion - it was a lesson in perseverance. Lee DiPietro discovered the exhilaration of endurance athletics when she ran her first half marathon in her late 20s. From that day forward, she took on every marathon that she could, and, despite having to juggle her running with her responsibilities as mother and wife, she quickly established herself as one of the best runners in the United States.

Nazir Afzal knows what it’s like to break the glass ceiling, challenge prejudice and shake up predominantly white institutions. Born in Birmingham to first generation Pakistani immigrants, he was the first Muslim to be appointed as a chief crown prosecutor and the most senior Muslim lawyer in the Crown Prosecution Service. His insights into the UK’s relationship with race and power have driven him to demand answers to an age-old question around Britain’s diversity failings: why does ethnic minority talent continue to be side-lined?

This is a brilliant dual biography charting British Robert Scott's and Norwegian Roald Amundsen's race to the South Pole during 1911-12. Huntuford's is the accepted, definitive account of the race and a reassessment of the two men. Thoroughly researched, revealing the adventures and misfortunes that befell them both, he describes the driving ambitions of the era, and the complex, often deeply flawed individuals who were charged with carrying them out.

Maybe I Don't Belong Here is a deeply personal exploration of the duality of growing up both Black and British, recovery from crisis and a rallying cry to examine the systems and biases that continue to shape our society. In this powerful and provocative account of a life lived after psychosis, critically acclaimed actor David Harewood uncovers devastating family history and investigates the very real impact of racism on Black mental health.

Art T. Burton sifts through fact and legend to discover the truth about one of the most outstanding peace officers in late 19th-century America - and perhaps the greatest lawman of the Wild West era. Fluent in Creek and other Southern native languages, physically powerful, skilled with firearms, and a master of disguise, Bass Reeves was exceptionally adept at apprehending fugitives and outlaws, and his exploits were legendary in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires’ Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.

Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer—some have called him a 'Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter'—whose crimes spanned decades, but by 1871 he was captured, chained in a cell—a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century 'mindhunters' got to work. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyse the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analysed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made?

Dreams from My Father is a masterpiece: a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking the big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama recounts an emotional odyssey. He retraces the migration of his mother's family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.