First published in 1993 and now available as an ebook. The bestselling story of one man’s fight against terrorism.Extraordinary courage, steely professionalism and ruthless determination are vital for the bomb-disposal man who risks his life daily to save others. Peter Gurney MBE, GM & Bar is such a man. In this compelling account of a career on the front line of the fight against crime and international terrorism, he tells how:• he defuzed the ...
First published in 2003 and now available as an ebook.One of the best lock forwards in the history of English and Lions’ game, and a successful captain to boot. Bill Beaumont’s popularity on the field and his appearances on A Question of Sport made him a household name.This is the light-hearted and amusing life story of a larger-than-life character.A serious head injury forced Bill Beaumont to retire from rugby prematurely at the age of 29, afte ...
In this electrifying autobiography, Rik stands naked in front of his vast legions of fans and disciples and invites them to take communion with the blood he has spilled for them during his thirty year war on show business.He invented alternative comedy with The Young Ones, he brought down the Thatcher administration with The New Statesman and he changed the face of global culture with his masterpiece Bottom. Not only was his number one single Li ...
‘My name is Michael Pennington, and I am not a comic character. I’m often mistaken for one though. You might know him by another name. Johnny Vegas.’From BBC Dickens adaptations to Benidorm and Ideal to the PG Tips ads, Johnny Vegas has become one of Britain's best-loved comic actors.But before he'd ever drunk tea with a knitted monkey or made himself the exception that proves the rule in terms of the predictability of TV panel game regulars, Jo ...
The one and only Fay Weldon tells the story of her turbulent and controversial life.From the 1930s to the 2000s, Fay Weldon has seen and lived our times. As a child in New Zealand, young and poor in London, unmarried mother, wife, lover, playwright, novelist, feminist, anti-feminist, spag-bol-cook, winer-and-diner, there are few waterfronts that she hasn’t covered, few battles she hasn’t fought. An icon to many, a thorn-in-the-flesh to others, s ...
Adeline Harris grew up in surroundings steeped in religion, from the beloved ayah in India who told her stories of Jesus wrestling tigers, to the strict father in England who placed a stone under her knee when she said the Rosary. It was no wonder that she always wanted to be a nun and a saint.Brought up to respect the church's authority, the parish priest was an important early influence in her life. And when she met the new charismatic priest, ...
LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2014‘A symphonic poem about postwar England and Englishness … A masterpiece’ Financial TimesThe 1950s were not grey. In Jonathan Meades’s detailed, petit-point memoir they are luridly polychromatic. They were peopled by embittered grotesques, bogus majors, vicious spinsters, reckless bohos, pompous boors, drunks, suicides. Death went dogging everywhere. Salisbury had two industries: God and the Cold War. F ...
Confessions of an unconventional modelIsobella Jade is no ordinary model – she is far too short for a start. At ‘almost five foot four’ in heels she found herself shunned by the major agencies and forced to take any job that came her way just to make ends meet.From nude photoshoots for leering amateur photographers to ‘arty’ crotch shots; from sex toy ads to lingerie shows. This is a tale from the sleazier side of modelling in the heart of New Y ...
“My husband died, my life collapsed.”On a February morning, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the Princeton Medical Center where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. In less than a week, Ray was dead and Joyce was faced – totally unprepared – with the reality of widowhood.In this beautiful and heart-breaking account, Joyce takes us through what it is to become a widow: the derangement of denial, the anguish of loss, the d ...
