Coco Chanel’s genius for fashion may have been distilled in simplicity, but her life was an extravaganza. A brilliant array of luminaries fell under her spell – Picasso, Churchill, lovers included the Grand Duke the English roué, Boy a French a German spy and the Duke of Westminster, who offered to leave his wife for her permanently, if she would only bear him an heir. Paradoxically, though she might have been regarded in some lights as a pioneering feminist – sacrificing marriage to a revolutionary career in couture – Chanel was utterly baffled by the idea of women’s politics. Educated women? 'A woman’s education consists of two lessons: never leave the house without stockings, never go out without a hat.’ Chanel’s rise from penniless orphan to millionaire designer – ‘inventing’ sportswear, the little black dress and No. 5 – makes compelling reading, not least because she was inclined to design her own life as deftly as she did her fashions. Axel Madsen negotiates Chanel’s sm

This Wordsworth Edition includes an exclusive Introduction by Angus Calder. As Angus Calder states in his introduction to this edition, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the major statements about the fighting experience of the First World War’. Lawrence's younger brothers, Frank and Will, had been killed on the Western Front in 1915. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, written between 1919 and 1926, tells of the vastly different campaign against the Turks in the Middle East - one which encompasses gross acts of cruelty and revenge and ends in a welter of stink and corpses in the disgusting ‘hospital’ in Damascus. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is no Boys Own Paper tale of Imperial triumph, but a complex work of high literary aspiration which stands in the tradition of Melville and Dostoevsky, and alongside the writings of Yeats, Eliot and Joyce.

Since Yao Ming's electrifying NBA debut with the Houston Rockets in 2002, the 7-foot-5 Chinese center has appeared in numerous TV commercials, on magazine covers, and in countless basketball-highlights reels. And yet, despite Yao's status as one of the country's most recognizable sports stars, the remarkable story of how a shy, gangly kid from Shanghai went on to become the NBA's first foreign-born and developed #1 draft pick has remained, until now, largely unknown. With this memoir, Yao reveals himself as a thoughtful, opinionated young man whose insights extend far beyond the basketball court. He paints a compelling portrait of how his parents, both former Chinese basketball stars and fully aware of the bleak outlook for ex-players, resisted the Chinese government's interest in steering their son into the sport as a child. But the love of the game took hold of Yao as a teenager, and he began to sense both his own potential and the restraints he would face from the bureaucrats who ran the sport. As

"Neverdieeasy.Whyrunoutofboundsanddieeasy?Makethatlinebackerpay.Itcarriesintoallfacetsofyourlife.It'sokaytolose,todie,butdon'tdiewithouttrying,withoutgivingityourbest." Hislegacyistowering.WalterPayton themantheycalledSweetness,forthewayheran remainsthemostprolificrunningbackinthehistoryoftheNationalFootballLeague,thestaroftheChicagoBears'onlySuperBowlChampionship,eleventimesvotedthemostpopularsportsfigureinChicago'shistory.Offthefield,hewasadevotedfatherwhosecharitablefoundationbenefitedtensofthousandsofchildreneachyear,andwho facedwithterminalliverdisease refusedtousehiscelebritytogainapreferentialpositionfororgandonation.WalterPaytonwasnotjustafootballhero;hewasAmerica'shero. NeverDieEasyisWalterPayton'sautobiography,toldfromtheheart.GrowinguppoorinMississippi,hetookupfootballtogetgirls'attention,andwentontobecomeaBlackCollegeAll-AmericanattinyJacksonState(duringwhichtimehewasalsoafinalistinaSoulTraindancecontest).DraftedbytheBearsin1975,hepredictedthathewouldlastonlyfiveyearsbutwentontoplaythirteenextrao