Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant and Ice Palace (1958), which also received a film adaptation in 1960. She helped adapt her short story "Old Man Minick", published in 1922, into a play (Minick) and it was thrice adapted to film, in 1925 as the silent film Welcome Home, in 1932 as The Expert, and in 1939 as No Place to Go.
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian-American Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India – the only one he created to disseminate his teachings. A chief disciple of the yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, he was sent by his lineage to spread the teachings of yoga to the West. He immigrated to the US at the age of 27 to prove the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to preach a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality. His long-standing influence in the American yoga movement, and especially the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the "Father of Yoga in the West". He lived his last 32 years in the US.
Pamela Stephenson, Lady Connolly is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, actress and comedian. She moved with her family to Australia in 1953 and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After playing several stage and television roles, she emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1976.
The Saturday Evening Post is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines among the American middle class, with fiction, non-fiction, cartoons and features that reached two million homes every week.
Aziz Nesin was a Turkish writer, humorist and the author of more than 100 books. Born in a time when Turks did not have official surnames, he had to adopt one after the Surname Law of 1934 was passed. Although his family carried the nickname "Topalosmanoğlu", after an ancestor named "Topal Osman", he chose the surname "Nesin". In Turkish, Nesin? means, What are you?.
Autobiography of a Yogi is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda published in 1946.
My Autobiography is a book by Benito Mussolini. It is a dictated, narrative autobiography recounting the author's youth, his years as an agitator and journalist, his experiences in World War I, the formation and revolutionary struggles of the Fascist Party, the March on Rome, and his early years in power. It was first published in 1928; Richard Washburn Child, together with Luigi Barzini, Jr., served as the book's ghostwriter.
Stuart John Maconie is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark Radcliffe, he hosts its weekend breakfast show which broadcasts from the BBC's MediaCityUK in Salford. The pair previously presented an evening show on BBC Radio 2 and the weekday afternoon show for BBC Radio 6 Music.
Andrew O'Hagan is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. Three of his novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize and he has won several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Nigel Slater is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for over a decade and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this, Slater was a food writer for Marie Claire for five years.
Canongate Books is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Alan Zweibel is an American television writer, author, playwright, and screenwriter whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Francesca Bridge is an English singer, formerly a member of S Club Juniors and a member of girl group The Saturdays. Bridge began her career when she auditioned for Simon Fuller's reality television competition S Club Search in 2001, broadcast on CBBC. She successfully auditioned and won a place in the pop group S Club Juniors. Bridge and the rest of the group then starred in their own reality TV show S Club Junior: The Story. Together with the band, Bridge successfully released seven singles and two albums. Whilst in the group, she made an appearance in S Club 7's TV show Viva S Club. The group then began featuring in their own children's musical television programme I Dream. Bridge played a main role in the show and went onto release the duet single "Dreaming" along with fellow S Club 8 member Calvin Goldspink.
The Saturdays are an English-Irish girl group based in London, England. The group formed during the summer of 2007 and has been on hiatus since 2014. The lineup consists of Frankie Bridge, Una Healy, Rochelle Humes, Mollie King, and Vanessa White. They were formed through Fascination Records, a sub-division of Polydor Records, which gave them an instant record deal with the label. As soon as the contract was finalized, the Saturdays went on tour with Girls Aloud during their Tangled Up Tour. The group's music style is pop, but throughout their career, their management has experimented with dance-pop and electropop. Songwriters and producers Ina Wroldsen, Steve Mac, Camille Purcell, and Quiz & Larossi have helped create their music. In July 2008, The Saturdays released their debut single and first Top Ten hit, "If This Is Love". Their debut album, Chasing Lights, released the same year, charted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart; it was certified platinum by the BPI and produced three more top ten singles: "Up", "Issues", and "Just Can't Get Enough". "Work" was also released from the album. The group's first concert tour, The Work Tour, took place in 2009. The group's second album, Wordshaker, produced the Top Ten hits "Forever Is Over" and "Ego". In 2010, the Saturdays released a mini album, Headlines!, which contained the top 10 hits "Missing You" and "Higher", the latter of which featured guest vocals from Flo Rida. The mini-album was supported by the group's second concert tour, The Headlines Tour. Their third album, On Your Radar, was released in 2011 and resulted in two top 10 singles: "Notorious" and "All Fired Up".
Dreams That Glitter – Our Story is the autobiography of English-Irish pop group Girls Aloud, which was published in October 2008. The book was written with a ghostwriter and published by the Transworld imprint Bantam Press.
Mollie Elizabeth King is an English pop singer, songwriter, radio presenter and a member of girl group The Saturdays.
Scholastique Mukasonga is a French-Rwandan author born in the former Gikongoro province of Rwanda. In 2012, She won the prix Renaudot and the prix Ahmadou-Kourouma for her book Our Lady of the Nile. In addition to being a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Mukasonga was rewarded in 2014 with the Seligmann Prize against racism and intolerance and in 2015 with the prize Société des gens de lettres. She currently resides in Normandy, France.
Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was a British author and scriptwriter, and "the most popular writer of children's books since Enid Blyton", according to Philip Howard, the literary editor of The Times. He was raised by his Norwegian mother, who took him on annual trips to Norway, where she told him the stories of trolls and witches present in the dark Scandinavian fables. Dahl was influenced by the stories, and returned to many of the themes in his children's books. His mother also nurtured a passion in the young Dahl for reading and literature.
