{"title":"Biographies \u0026 Memoirs","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"elizabeth-i-virgin-queen-1","title":"Elizabeth I: Virgin Queen?","description":"'Gloriana', 'Faerie Queene', 'Queen Bess' are just some of the names given to Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. But the name for which she is perhaps best remembered and which best explains why Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor monarchs, was the 'Virgin Queen'. But how appropriate is that image? Were Elizabeth's suitors and favourites really just innocent intrigues? Or were they much more than that? Was Elizabeth really a woman driven by her passions, who had affairs with several men, including Thomas Seymour, while he was still the husband of her guardian Catherine Parr, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester - a man adjudged to have been the great love of her life? And, are the rumours of Elizabeth's illegitimate children true? Was the 'Virgin Queen' image a carefully thought out piece of Tudor propaganda? Historian Philippa Jones, author of the acclaimed \"The Other Tudors\", challenges the many myths and truths surrounding Elizabeth's life and reveals the passionate woman behind the powerful and fearless 'Virgin Queen'.","brand":"Fox Chapel Publishing Co.","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":49268031291673,"sku":"5157","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-84773-515-7.jpg?v=1712166796"},{"product_id":"elizabeth-i-virgin-queen","title":"Elizabeth I: Virgin Queen?","description":"Was the 'Virgin Queen' image just Tudor propaganda? Historian Philippa Jones, author of the acclaimed The Other Tudors, challenges the many myths and truths surrounding Elizabeth's life and reveals the passionate woman behind the scenes. ‘Virgin Queen’ is the name for which the powerful and fearless daughter of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn is best remembered, and may explain why Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor monarchs. But how appropriate is that reputation? Were Elizabeth's suitors and favorites really just innocent intrigues? Or were they much more than that? Was Elizabeth really a woman driven by her passions, who had affairs with several men, including Thomas Seymour, while he was still the husband of her guardian Catherine Parr, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester—a man adjudged to have been the great love of her life? Are the rumors of Elizabeth's illegitimate children true?","brand":"Philippa Jones","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":49057932411161,"sku":"00778","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-5048-0077-8.jpg?v=1720110966"},{"product_id":"the-vodka-cola-cowboy-trucking-russia-1990-1995","title":"The Vodka-Cola Cowboy: Trucking Russia 1990 - 1995","description":"The Vodka-Cola Cowboy describes life trucking in what is possibly the harshest environment, in the world - Russia. Between 1990 and 1995 British owner driver Mick Twemlow worked to transport goods to, from and within Russia and the wider Soviet Union. Living in Moscow with his future wife, Elena and their daughter, Margarita, who was born there, in 1992, Mick learned the language and fully immersed himself in Russian society, giving him an insider's view of this time of massive upheaval in the Soviet Union.  The book vividly illustrates the conditions that British truck drivers encountered, such as the atrocious winter weather in a wild and unforgiving landscape, police harassment and the dangers that came with the dissolution of the USSR. Mick was the only British truck driver, in Moscow, throughout the whole of the anti-Gorbachev coup, of 1991 and so the book offers a unique perspective, of that historical event. The incidents described in the book range from the humorous, to the serious, to the potentially life threatening. This book will primarily be of interest to truck drivers, and those with an interest in road transport and the haulage industry, in general.Russia is still an unknown quantity, all around the globe, with regards to people's understanding of it and its people and so The Vodka-Cola Cowboy will also be of interest to anyone who has a fascination with the country, particularly during this tumultuous time in the region's socio-political history.","brand":"Mick Twemlow","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":49824179355929,"sku":"6538","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-91045-653-8.jpg?v=1757511809"},{"product_id":"in-the-driving-seat","title":"In the Driving Seat","description":"This recollection of a long and varied life in transport will evoke memories from other drivers who will recognise the truth of this detailed and humorous account.","brand":"Alex Heymer","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":49828864164121,"sku":"3962I","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-90552-396-2.jpg?v=1757511790"},{"product_id":"wheres-sharawrah-a-truck-drivers-adventure-across-the-arabian-desert","title":"Where's Sharawrah?: A Truck Driver's Adventure Across the Arabian Desert","description":"Three articulated trucks load in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: two Volvo 4X2 European road artics and a Mercedes 6X6 desert artic. Their destination is Sharawrah, somewhere south of The Empty Quarter. Seven days to travel a thousand kilometers, a third of which are open desert. Seven days that will turn into seventy.... This is the true story of Gordon Pearce, an English truck driver determined to get the job done. With the help of Bedouins, he crossed three hundred kilometers of unpredictable desert in the height of the summer of 1978. Aside from the physical challenges, he also has to battle bureaucracy and begins to dread hearing the word bukkera (tomorrow). Told in an ironic modest style and illustrated with photos from that time, Where's Sharawrah? is a captivating book for vehicle enthusiasts and anyone who is passionate about truck adventures. [Subject: Memoir, Transportation]","brand":"Gordon Pearce","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":49917170024729,"sku":"6002","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-91045-600-2.jpg?v=1757511790"},{"product_id":"juggernaut-trucking-to-saudi-arabia","title":"Juggernaut: Trucking to Saudi Arabia","description":"In 1986 professional writer Robert Hutchison became a passenger on a 10,000-mile trip through fourteen countries in a Scania 111. He was sampling the life of the long-haul trucker. The truckers' world was one of long days and nights on the road away  from their families, hair-raising tales of accidents and the extreme danger created by murderous driving. He grew to understand why truckers put up with the life  -  not just for the money and the excitement, but also for their pride in coping whatever the  circumstances and for camaraderie. There was, too, the beauty of  mountains and lakesides and the strangeness of the desert. Robert's trip with Graham Davies of Whittle International took him through Cold-War Europe to Turkey and then through Iraq during the  Iran - Iraq conflict with twenty-mile border queues and frequent police  shakedowns. Finally they delivered their cargo of machinery and ovens for making plastic pipes to Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia before heading  home after 31 days on the road.  This journey was undertaken when the golden age of transport from Europe to the Gulf was coming to an end.  Robert's accurate record, first published in 1987, is full of interest, drama and humour, telling the story of a remarkable breed of men. This is the first paperback edition.","brand":"Robert Hutchison","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":49917228319001,"sku":"7867","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-90839-786-7.jpg?v=1757511700"},{"product_id":"farming-stories-from-the-scottish-borders-hard-lives-for-poor-reward","title":"Farming Stories from the Scottish Borders: Hard Lives for Poor Reward","description":"This book is about the generations of people who have made the farms we know today. Engaging, enjoyable and informative, the author uses various family experiences to take the reader through three centuries of change in the countryside, including two farming revolutions. Connections are made with people both in and outside of agriculture. Farming issues, past and present, are illustrated by recounting the lives of country people from farm worker to estate owner.Focussing on the Scottish Borders but reflecting lives across the UK, these tales give historically factual accounts of real life people and their ups and downs in dealing with the forces of nature, the varying states of economic depression that swept through the countryside, and the everyday conflicts that arise in family life.Based on painstaking research and many interviews, as well as the author's own personal experience of a lifetime in farming, Farming Stories from the Scottish Borders tells of the struggle against adversity and the human story behind modern farming ways.It will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the history of the countryside and the people who live and work in it and particularly those with a nostalgia for the 'old days'.","brand":"Colin Whittemore","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":49917195485465,"sku":"6743F","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-91045-674-3.jpg?v=1757510381"},{"product_id":"oily-hands-and-the-smell-of-diesel","title":"Oily Hands and the Smell of Diesel","description":"1960 saw the dawn of an era of unprecedented innovation and development in farm machinery. It was a period of rapid technical advancement, that produced machines which are the mainstay of the current very buoyant vintage tractor restoration movement. At the start of the decade, spark-ignition Standard Fordson tractors still occasionally required repair; by the end of the decade, the Fordson Diesel Major had been replaced by the Ford 1000 series. The history of these iconic brands is well-known; Oily Hands and the Smell of Diesel gives an alternative view - the inside story of the agricultural machinery repair trade. First employed as an apprentice, then moving his way up to an engineer, David Harris gives an entertaining, informative and personal account of his time spent at a Ford main tractor dealership, working on Ford, Fordson, County, Roadless and Muirhill tractors, Chaseside loaders, Claas combines and New Holland and Jones balers amongst others. Including many historical photographs, David describes the technical challenges in detail, and tells of the ups and downs of life in the workshop and out in the field.  This book will be a must-read for anyone who is or was involved in the machinery industry; anyone looking to restore or repair vintage agricultural machinery and anyone with a general interest in farming and machinery history.","brand":"David Harris","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":49917200630041,"sku":"6989","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-91045-698-9.jpg?v=1757510365"},{"product_id":"fifty-shades-of-tarmac","title":"Fifty Shades of Tarmac","description":"It was 1972. It was summer - and the living was easy! Arthur Jackson has a good job, no ties and no responsibilities, but it is not enough - he wants adventure and he wants to see the world!Based on the author's real life experiences and illustrated with photographs from the time, Fifty Shades of Tarmac tells the fictional story of how a naive young British truck driver obtains his first job driving a Mack on the continent of Europe. His first trip with all its pitfalls and novel experiences takes him from Rotterdam to Bremerhaven via Moutiers and Salzburg and then back to Rotterdam. It is told with humour, introducing a number of colourful characters, and providing a personal and unusual insight into the life of a truck driver in the 70s at a time when Europe still had frontier posts and custom restrictions.It will be of interest to truck drivers, Mack fans and other transport enthusiasts and those who simply want to learn more about the social history of Europe in the 1970s.","brand":"Andy MacLean","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":50009095405849,"sku":"6033F","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6446\/3129\/files\/978-1-91045-603-3.jpg?v=1757510308"}],"url":"https:\/\/foxchapelpublishing.com\/collections\/biographies-memoirs-lifestyle.oembed","provider":"Fox Chapel Publishing Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}