Biography

A MASSIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER IN HARDBACK - NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK Teen dance prodigy, breakout Dance Moms star, and judge (read more)

A MASSIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER IN HARDBACK - NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK Teen dance prodigy, breakout Dance Moms star, and judge on So You Think you Can Dance: The Next Generation, Maddie Ziegler presents her uplifting coming-of-age memoir about following her dreams and working hard to achieve success in both the dance world and in life. Maddie Ziegler had hoped to become a star - she just didn't know how soon that day would come. At just eight years old, she was cast on the hit reality TV show Dance Moms and quickly won the hearts of fans everywhere with her natural talent and determination.

Soon, she was catching eyes all over - including those of pop superstar Sia, who handpicked her to star in the incredibly popular music video 'Chandelier'. The rest, as they say, is history. In this inspirational memoir, Maddie explains the hard work she put in to her rise to stardom and how she keeps her balance along the way - starring in music videos, going on tour and becoming an actress in The Book of Henry, with Naomi Watts and Jacob Tremblay.
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Whether it is pastoral care for the bereaved, discussions about the afterlife, or being called out to perform the last rites, death (read more)

Whether it is pastoral care for the bereaved, discussions about the afterlife, or being called out to perform the last rites, death is part of the Reverend Richard Coles's life and work. But when his partner the Reverend David Coles died, shortly before Christmas in 2019, much about death took Coles by surprise. For one thing, David's death at the early age of forty-three was unexpected.

The man that so often assists others to examine life's moral questions now found himself in need of help. He began to look to others for guidance to steer him through his grief. The flock was leading the shepherd. (hide)

Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless. In this book, (read more)

Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless. In this book, Jay Blades shares the details of his life, from his childhood growing up sheltered and innocent on a council estate in Hackney, to his adolescence when he was introduced to violent racism at secondary school, to being brutalized by police as a teen, to finally becoming a beloved star of the hit primetime show The Repair Shop.
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Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, (read more)

Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but he grew up in a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas.

His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana, and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries, as well as braces and crutches for life, and was told that she would never have children or a family. Wilfully defying expectations, she found salvation in an unlikely faith, raised three sons, and escaped the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages before finding love and an improbable career in the U.S. civil service. When Lance came out to his mother at twenty-one, he was already studying the arts instead of going on his Mormon mission. She derided his sexuality as a sinful choice and was terrified for his future. (hide)

The enthralling Sunday Times-bestselling biography of the shepherd boy who changed the world with his revolutionary engineering and (read more)

The enthralling Sunday Times-bestselling biography of the shepherd boy who changed the world with his revolutionary engineering and whose genius we still benefit from todayThomas Telford's name is familiar; his story less so. Born in 1757 in the Scottish Borders, his father died in his infancy, plunging the family into poverty. Telford's life soared to span almost eight decades of gloriously obsessive, prodigiously productive energy.

Few people have done more to shape our nation. A stonemason turned architect turned engineer, Telford invented the modern road, built churches, harbours, canals, docks, the famously vertiginous Pontcysyllte aqueduct in Wales and the dramatic Menai Bridge. His constructions were the greatest in Europe for a thousand years, and - astonishingly - almost everything he ever built remains in use today. (hide)

A national treasure's journey to the brink and back. 'Will I wake up?' 'There's a 50:50 chance.' Michael Rosen wasn't feeling well. (read more)

A national treasure's journey to the brink and back. 'Will I wake up?' 'There's a 50:50 chance.' Michael Rosen wasn't feeling well. Soon he was struggling to breathe, and then he was admitted to hospital, suffering from coronavirus as the nation teetered on the edge of a global pandemic.

What followed was months on the wards: six weeks in an induced coma, and many more weeks of rehab and recovery as the NHS saved Michael's life, and then got him back on his feet. Throughout Michael's stay in intensive care, a notebook lay at the end of his bed, where the nurses who cared for him wrote letters of hope and support. Embarking on the long road to recovery, Michael was soon ready to start writing about his near-death experience. (hide)

Tracing Mead's career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written (read more)

Tracing Mead's career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written biography links the professional and personal sides of her career. The book looks at Mead's early career through the end of World War II, when she produced her most important anthropological works, as well as her role as a public figure in the post-war period, through the 1960s until her death in 1978. The criticisms of Mead are also discussed and analyzed.

Published:2 Jul 2021 (hide)

The savage beauty of his creative vision stunned and shocked the fashion world for over 15 years, with his avant-garde theatricality (read more)

The savage beauty of his creative vision stunned and shocked the fashion world for over 15 years, with his avant-garde theatricality leading many to call him the enfant terrible of British fashion. He created fashion moments which have not faded from memory, like David Bowie's Union Jack coat from 1996, Sarah Jessica Parker's tartan Met Gala dress from 2006, and Lady Gaga in those alien armadillo shoes in the Bad Romance video clip in 2009. But before he was Alexander McQueen, he was Lee Alexander McQueen, the boy from London who dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.
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Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming (read more)

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star.

By the age of twenty-three, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. (hide)

** Please note this book is being reprinted and we are awaiting new stock, but aren't yet sure when it will arrive. "" One of the (read more)

** Please note this book is being reprinted and we are awaiting new stock, but aren't yet sure when it will arrive. ""

One of the Guardian's TOP TEN READS for Christmas'This book is inspired!!!' Nadiya Hussain'[It's] beautiful, like Dawn, and stuffed full of goodies' Jo BrandThis is Dawn French's fabulous new non-fiction book for 2017, and it's totally interactive: take a lovely ramble through the year together with Dawn. Think of it as Dawn's diary, personalized by you . .

. perfection. I can't count the amount of diaries I have crammed full with entries in January, that then fizzle out as the other months pile in.

One of my teenage diaries has fulsome fizzing reports of every single conversation, thought and feeling about every friend, every crush, every meal, every argument until mid-March, when the entry on the 18th simply reads, 'Washed hair.' Thank god, this isn't that. This book is a way for us to tell the story of a year together. Feel free to write your appointments in it, lists, thoughts and reminders of, say, who to kill, and when, and in what order. (hide)