In their own words nine contemporary teenagers give accounts of violence, as witnesses, victims, instigators or all three. An afterword by a youth services specialist explores how teenagers can come to terms with violent events.

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A Guardian Best Architecture Book of the Year “Sharp, revealing, funny.” —The Guardian “An original and even occasionally hilarious book about losing ideals and finding them again... [De Graaf] deftly shows that architecture cannot be better or more pure than the flawed humans who make it.” —The Economist Architecture, we like to believe, is an elevated art form that shapes the world as it pleases. Four Walls and a Roof turns this fiction on its head, offering a candid account of what it’s really like to work as an architect. Drawing on his own tragicomic experiences in the field, Reinier de Graaf reveals the world of contemporary architecture in vivid snapshots: from the corridors of wealth in London, Moscow, and Dubai to the demolished hopes of postwar social housing in New York and St. Louis. We meet ambitious oligarchs, developers for whom architecture is nothing more than an investment, and layers of bureaucrats, consultants, and mysterious hangers-on who lie between any architect’s idea and the chance of its execution. “This is a book about power, money and influence, and architecture’s complete lack of any of them... Witty, insightful and funny, it is a (sometimes painful) dissection of a profession that thinks it is still in control.” —Financial Times “This is the most stimulating book on architecture and its practice that I have read for years.” —Architects’ Journal

In their own words nine contemporary teenagers give accounts of violence, as witnesses, victims, instigators or all three. An afterword by a youth services specialist explores how teenagers can come to terms with violent events.

"Every word written in this book was written from within the confines of my home. Spanning over nearly three years this book is a testament to my time being housebound and proof that despite all the suffering, there is always happiness to be created, peace to be unearthed, and a life to be lived. A journey of self-discovery and personal growth, I hope this book may offer you comfort, inspiration, and wisdom, whatever path you find yourself on. And I hope by sharing my story and imparting my thoughts, it may help you in some small way too." - You'll find this book is a collection of "pieces": some longer, some shorter, some reading like letters, others like journal entries, some like poems, and some continuous and broken prose. The book is split into three parts: The Storm, The Aftermath, and The Calm, as well as a bonus chapter called 'A Conversation with Wisdom'. This book will take you on a transformative journey from the bad moments, to the good moments, and everything in between.

This is the remarkable story of two British officers and their war effort, capture by the Germans, imprisonment and eventual escape to Holland. The pair were stationed in Mons at the outbreak of the war but were both captured and transferred to a POW camp in Burg, Germany. Almost immediatelly after arriving, the pair were planning their escape. After dyeing and tailoring their own uniforms, they simply strolled out of the Burg camp, enjoying nine days of freedom before being recaptured at Rostock. Complete with a collection of original photographs and drawings drawn by the authors, this book reads like the screenplay of a Hollywood blockbuster and is a riveting read from beginning to end.

"Everything begins on my return to Rwanda" begins Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's new book written from her prison cell. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's new book written from her prison cell. After 16 years of exile in Holland, Victoire decided to return to her home country. This book recounts her life experience for 3 years, from the moment she announced her candidacy for presidential elections, to her incarceration into the famous "1930" maximum security prison. In this book, she describes her encounter with corrupt Rwandan judicial system from within. Interrogations, continuous threats, fabricated charges, her attempts to register her party, the prohibition of visiting her family in the Netherlands especially not being able to attend her son's 8th birthday. "Those politicians are ruthless. There are reasons to be afraid to live in this country. I have just spent more than twelve hours behind bars having done nothing, whatsoever" "The problem is not that they ignore who I am or that they don't know what is good for our fellow citizens, they just don't want to run the risk of losing power."