When beautiful heiress Nicky Samuel (1951-2019) left school at the age of 16, she was caught up in the world of Sixties London. Her first job was with Yoko Ono, and she soon fell in love with the owner of the fashionable hippy boutique ‘Granny Takes a Trip’, Nigel Waymouth, whom she married and with whom she later attended the legendary Isle of Wight Pop Concert. She spent time with celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, Roger Vadim, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Mapplethorpe. At nineteen, Nicky became a fashionable hostess. She was photographed by Norman Parkinson for Vogue; and her close friends included Mick and Bianca Jagger, Christopher Gibbs, David Hockney, Anita Pallenberg and the eccentric, reclusive heroin addict John Paul Getty Jr. Her marriage broke up when she became involved in a passionate menage-a-trois involving the film-director Donald Cammell. In 1974, Nicky married homosexual jewellery designer, New York socialite and fortune-hunter Kenneth Jay Lane. Her social success was such that she was featured as a ‘New Beauty’ by Time Magazine. However, she became so unhappy and drug-addicted that she attempted suicide in the London Ritz. Nicky’s is exactly the kind of superficially glamorous life to which many star-struck and celebrity-hungry people aspire; this memoir is also a uniquely vivid experience of a vanished world.

When beautiful heiress Nicky Samuel (1951-2019) left school at the age of 16, she was caught up in the world of Sixties London.

The arrival of the 1980s saw millions living behind the Iron Curtain flee their homeland in search of a better tomorrow. Step-by-step, they trudged persistently to reach their dream of happiness. These were the Columbuses of the 1980s – risk takers who had the courage to test themselves and explore the notoriety of the western world first-hand. Was It Worth It is a modern odyssey spanning three continents and following one family’s path to a new, unfamiliar future. It tells of the characters’ struggle to adapt to foreign places, languages and customs. With settings in Lima, Paris, Ottawa, and exploring venues in other countries, the book offers readers an insight into what it takes to start from scratch in an unknown land. Did they find what they were looking for?

During the Second World War, one of the largest British Commonwealth armies ever assembled fought the Japanese in South East Asia, first on the border between what was then British India and Burma and then pushing deeper into Burma itself. Supporting the Fourteenth Army were an intrepid group of women known colloquially as the Wasbies - the Women's Auxilliary Service (Burma) or WAS(B). This is the story of how Maria Pilbrow faced menace and heartbreak yet coped with fortitude and determination. In the course of her life she overcame loss, anguish, danger and desperation. She survived the jungle horrors and, after the war ended, again found love and the security she craved only to have them ripped away once more. She was forced to rebuild her life anew which she achieved with the friendship and support of her Wasbie friends. Astonishingly, there is very little information about the work of the Wasbies and no full-length book has been written which gives an account of their exploits - until now. For the first time in book form Front Line and Fortitudeprovides a personal record of these brave women and their magnificent contribution to the war effort. The book is based on and expanded from Maria Pilbrow's original diary, and her niece, Elizabeth Lockhart-Mure discovered her diary after Maria's death, and told this extraordinary story.

“Gentleman Jim is a special forces hero – and he is one of mine too." Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBE The trailblazing sequel to Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS. Following his death-defying Second World War, Gentleman Jim Almonds would never settle to an ordinary job. The SAS was disbanded but as a thirty-year-old Captain, he still hungered for adventure. After training Emperor Hailie Selassie’s Army in Ethiopia, he went as Second-in-Command of a bandit-chasing outfit in the new ‘Wild West’ of Eritrea. He was on active service in so-called peacetime. Atrocities and killings were common, but British justice was swift during a race against time as Almonds brought terrorism under control before the implementation of a United Nations decision to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia. Meanwhile, he embarked on personal adventuring and exploration alone in the wilds, rivers and highlands of Ethiopia, sometimes coming close to death. He was still the great escaper. The SAS reformed in Malaya and Almonds ran straight to the battle again. Back with the Regiment, he parachuted into the jungle to clear communist terrorists out of Malaya. In the early days of the Malayan Emergency, he improvised insertion techniques, close quarter combat training and led the long slow marches out. The success of this British campaign has been largely unsung – until now. In Singapore, Almonds took time out to design and hand-build boats in which he and his family sailed around the Straits of Johor. Another opportunity took him to the Gold Coast as a Major in the West African Frontier Force. He witnessed Independence as the British Union Flag was lowered and Ghana was created. He built a riverboat and navigated the mighty Volta River, before it was dammed, through dense equatorial jungle from Yeji to the sea. He even built, by hand (no power tools), a thirty-foot ocean-going ketch – designed and memorized whilst in an Italian Prisoner of War camp. He sailed out into the mid-Atlantic and home to England. He had no modern steering aids, no health and safety and no radio – yet an uncanny sense of direction. In the dog days of Empire, the story captures the snapshot detail of the many countries he visited during his three-month intercontinental voyage. The account is set in a meticulously researched context, fully sourced and contains a comprehensive index, maps and glossaries.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2010 by Chatto & Windus.