In 2008, YouTube.com featured an extraordinary two-minute film clip that became an overnight phenomenon. It shows the remarkable, highly moving reunion of two men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa with Born Free’s George Adamson, who would introduce him into his rightful home in the wild.
A Lion Called Christian tells the backstory, of how John Rendall and Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke, visitors to London from Australia in 1969, bought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods for 250 guineas. For a while, the three of them lived together as flatmates in a furniture shop in the King’s Road, Chelsea, where Christian quickly became a local celebrity.But the lion cub was growing up, fast, and even the walled church garden in which he exercised wouldn’t be big enough for him for much longer.How could John and Ace avoid having to incarcerate him in a zoo for the rest of his life?
It was thanks to Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, stars of Born Free, who dropped into the shop, that Christian was subsequently flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of Adamson. After settling Christian in, Ace and John did not return to Kenya to see Christian for a full year. Thanks to the internet age, their very special and touching reunion is again being enjoyed by millions.
A Lion Called Christian is the full story behind the amazing clip. Originally published in 1971, it has now been fully revised and updated by the authors, with stunning photographs of Christian from cuddly cub in Chelsea to magnificent lion in Africa. It is a unique and extraordinary story of its time, and is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature.
On 24th November 2009, Costa, UK’s fastest-growing coffee shop chain, has announced on BBC Radio 4′s Front Row programme, the shortlists for the 2009 Costa Book Awards. The award is one of the most prestigious and popular literary prizes in the UK for and recognises the most enjoyable bookswriters based in the UK and Ireland. The award has 5 sub-categories: five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book.
The Costa Book Awards started life in 1971 as the Whitbread Literary Awards. From 1985 they were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006, when Costa Coffee took over ownership – the year that both Costa and the Book Awards celebrated their 35th anniversary.
Since 1971, the awards have rewarded a wide range of excellent books and authors across all genres. Since the introduction of the overall Book of the Year Award in 1985, it has been won seven times by a novel, three times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book.
The winners of all 5 categories will be announced on 5th January 2010 while the overall winner will be announced on 26th January 2010. Last year’s Book of the Year was won by Irish author, Sebastian Barry for his book The Secret Scripture.
Here’s what you have to do – take a look at the pictures on the left. There are parts of 3 different book covers.
Name any of the titles of the books correctly, and win a copy of the book!!
The first correct answer/s will win. So, leave your answers at the comment column below for the book of your heart’s desire. Only those who live in Malaysia (east and west) can participate and win the prizes.
Winners will be announced on 1st, December 2009. Remember to come back and check if you have won and watch out for clues . . .
Teri Tom, the “top student” of Bruce Lee’s protege Ted Wong, returns to the world of Jeet Kune Do with her new book, Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression. In a natural progression from her first work, The Straight Lead, Tom takes some of the basic mechanics and strategies covered in that book and applies them to the rest of the Jeet Kune Do repertoire, filling instructional gaps found between Lee’s Fighting Method series and The Tao of Jeet Kune Do—which Lee never intended to be published as an instruction manual.
Incorporating many details that Wong observed during his time with Bruce Lee, and also his own research into the how and why of Jeet Kune Do techniques, this excellent new book provides the information that connects the dots found in The Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Those small, nuanced movements—like footwork, feinting, weight transfer and the sequencing of those elements—and how they’re used to transition from movement to movement will make all the difference in your practice of Jeet Kune Do.
About the Author:
Teri Tom, MS, RD, has spent 10 years and over 1,000 hours in private study with Sifu Ted Wong and is one of the world’s most knowledgeable instructors on the lattermost stages of Bruce Lee’s martial art, Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do. She is a board member of the Bruce Lee Foundation, pens a monthly column for Black Belt Magazine, and is the author of The Straight Lead: The Core of Bruce Lee’s Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do.
The mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the value of good writing in America. The awards were first given on March 16, 1950 to writers, by writers to honor the year’s best work in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
In 1980, various publishers who sponsored the event sought to broaden further the audience for American literature by honoring an even wider range of American writers. As a result, the 30-year-old National Book Awards was discontinued and The American Book Awards (TABA) established. TABA gave a total of 28 prizes in 16 separate categories. Then, it soon became obvious that too many categories diffused the Awards’ original intended impact. By 1984, the Board reduced the number of awards categories to three and, in 1987, reestablished the National Book Awards. Since 1996, independent panels of five writers have chosen the National Book Award Winners in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature.
This year, 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for the 2009 National Book Awards. The results were announced on 18 November, 2009.
The winners are as follows:
Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Non-fiction: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles
Poetry: Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop
Young People’s Literature: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose
BEST-SELLING Chinese novelist SU TONG‘s soon to be published The Boat to Redemption (Doubleday, January 2010) has been awarded the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize. It is a picaresque, political fable set in a small town in eastern China during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. The book will be translated from Chinese to English by Howard Goldblatt. Su Tong is the second Chinese writer to win the three-year-old prize. The first was won by Jiang Rong for his book, Wolf Totem in 2007. Last year’s winner was Miguel Syjuco for his book, Ilustrado.
Su Tong is the pen name of a Mainland Chinese writer born in Suzhou and is now based in Nanjing. His real name is Tong Zhonggui. He is best known for his book Wives and Concubines in the West, published in 1990. The book was adapted into the film, Raise the Red Lantern by director Zhang Yimou. The book has since been published under the name given to the film.
Man Asian Literary Prize is an annual award for an “Asian novel unpublished in English”. The Prize was launched in 2007 and is now in its third year. The prize aims to be explicitly Asian, rooted to the region and would be awarded only to writers originating and writing from Asia, rather than authors of Asian background writing from other regions.
The objectives of the Asian Literary Prize are:
To bring exciting new Asian authors to the attention of the world literary community;
To facilitate publishing and translation of Asian literature in and into English; and
To highlight Asia’s developing role in world literature.
The Prize was initiated by the Hong Kong International Literary Festival Limited with financial support from the Man Group, title sponsor of the Man Booker Prize. It is administered by representatives from the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts.
Agassi makes us feel his panic as an undersized seven-year-old in Las Vegas, practicing all day under the obsessive gaze of his violent father. We see him at thirteen, banished to a Florida tennis camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning fast return.
And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world’s best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.
Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match, and every public relationship. Alongside vivid portraits of rivals, Agassi gives unstinting accounts of his brief time with Barbra Streisand and his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He reveals the depression that shatters his confidence, and the mistake that nearly costs him everything. Finally, he recounts his spectacular resurrection and his march to become the oldest man ever ranked number one.
In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf.
With its breakneck tempo and raw candor, Open will be read and cherished for years. A treat for ardent fans, it will also captivate readers who know nothing about tennis. Like Agassi’s game, it sets a new standard for grace, style, speed and power.
Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is a former World No. 1 professional American tennis player who won eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. He is generally considered by critics and fellow players to be among the greatest tennis players of all time, and has been called the best service returner in the history of tennis. Known for his unorthodox apparel and attitude, Agassi is often cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game, and along with Pete Sampras is credited for the revived popularity of tennis in the U.S. during the 1990s. He is married to fellow retired professional tennis player and multiple Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf.
After suffering from sciatica caused by two bulging discs in his back, a spondylolisthesis (vertebral displacement) and a bone spur that interferes with the nerve, Agassi retired from professional tennis on September 3, 2006, after losing in the third round of the US Open. He is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada. In 2001, the Foundation opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a K-12 public charter school for at-risk children.
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