Biography

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction. (read more)

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction. I've been writing novels for over fifty years. I was lucky enough to miss the big wars and not get shot, but lucky enough to grow up among the heroes who had served in them and learn from their example.

I have lucked into things continuously. I have done things which have seemed appalling at the time, disastrous even, but out of them has come another story or a deeper knowledge of human character and the ability to express myself better on paper and write books which people enjoy reading. Along the way, I have lived a life that I could never have imagined. (hide)

'Axel Linden is a shepherd-philosopher with James Herriot's knack for mishap and an almost Chekhovian deadpan humour.' Observer'Endearing (read more)

'Axel Linden is a shepherd-philosopher with James Herriot's knack for mishap and an almost Chekhovian deadpan humour.' Observer'Endearing and liberating.' Idler Magazine'A sublime little book.' Cotswold LifeWhy do we keep sheep? Alex Linden ruminates as he watches his sheep ruminating. Naive and inexperienced, he has ditched his doctoral studies in order to move to a fully working farm in the country with his family, where he is tasked with the responsibility of caring for a herd of sheep. Linden records his new life in his diary, as he tries to manage life on the farm, the ever-escaping sheep and the trials and tribulations that come with being a shepherd - shearing, lambing and confronting the slaughterhouse. (hide)

ON THE ROAD: GROWING UP IN EIGHT JOURNEYS - MY EARLY YEARS is a new form of autobiography, in which TOP GEAR presenter Richard Hammond (read more)

ON THE ROAD: GROWING UP IN EIGHT JOURNEYS - MY EARLY YEARS is a new form of autobiography, in which TOP GEAR presenter Richard Hammond tells the story of his early life through a series of significant driving episodes. He's a child in the back seat of Dad's car on the way to the seaside in Weston-Super-Mare. He's on his first bike, a red one, in Solihull, then on his first motorcycle, a Honda MTX50.

He's at the wheel of his first car (and in the back with his first girlfriend). He is driving a furniture delivery van as part of his first job in and around Ripon. Now he is showing off with a friend, risking everything.

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ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE, Channel 4's Bafta-winning documentary series has been a critical and popular smash-hit. And in January 2012, (read more)

ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE, Channel 4's Bafta-winning documentary series has been a critical and popular smash-hit. And in January 2012, we'll be back on the maternity ward for fourteen brand-new, thrilling episodes. In this wonderful book, midwives Maria Dore and Ros Bradbury look back over their careers and reveal the extraordinary experiences that fill every their working day - from first-time mums with unusual birth plans to overwhelmed dads who end up on the delivery room floor.

And, of course, the beautiful babies who make it all worthwhile. Maria explains, 'To be part of anyone's birth experience is just the best. You never quite get over that miracle.

Now updated to include the latest news of babies born during Series 2. (hide)

4o years with the krays is the untold, intimate history of the twins and the woman who raised them. Told with humour and insight, (read more)

4o years with the krays is the untold, intimate history of the twins and the woman who raised them. Told with humour and insight, it looks back across the decades at the life of this close knit, notorious East End family. Maureen Flanagan, a then 20 year old hairdresser started visiting the Kray family home in Vallance Road each week to give the twins' mother, Violet, her weekly shampoo and set.

Over the cups of tea and the rollers and hairpins, Violet began to confide in 'Flan' about her life, her incredible pride in her twins, the celebrities who visited her at their humble East End home - and her troubled relationship with her husband. (hide)

In his first book David Jason told us about himself from his early years training as an electrician through to making it as one of (read more)

In his first book David Jason told us about himself from his early years training as an electrician through to making it as one of Britain's greatest actors. This autumn, in a follow up autobiography, he tells us about the many other lives he has lived - his characters. From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost, he takes us behind the scenes and under the skins of some of the best loved acts of his career.

And in the process he reflects on how those characters changed his life too. The result told with his characteristic charm and wit is both funny and poignant, honest and heart warming.
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Stocked 28.11.2012***The first volume of Brian Sewell's scandalous and haunting memoir was met by riotous applause in the press. (read more)

Stocked 28.11.2012***The first volume of Brian Sewell's scandalous and haunting memoir was met by riotous applause in the press. 'Outsider is a delicious read ...I want more - much more,' wrote Rachel Cooke in the Guardian. 'This book records an extraordinary life and will, I hope, soon be continued,' added Lynn Barber in the Sunday Times.

Outsider II will certainly not disappoint. With the first instalment ending tantalisingly in 1967 - after exploring Sewell's childhood, adolescence and early adulthood - this next chapter charts his path to becoming, as the Spectator noted, 'Surely the funniest art critic of our time.' (hide)

Paul O'Grady's Country Life for the first time gives a glimpse into the home life of one of Britain's best loved stars, alongside (read more)

Paul O'Grady's Country Life for the first time gives a glimpse into the home life of one of Britain's best loved stars, alongside the animals he adores. Sometimes rural idyll, sometimes hell on earth, Paul's life in rural Kent has been shared over the years with some very vocal pigs, a mad cow, various rescued barn owls, the world's most sadistic geese and Christine the psychotic sheep - among many other animal waifs and strays. And of course Paul tells the stories of the dogs in his life - including the tiny chihuahua/Jack Russell cross with Napoleonic ambitions, Eddie, Miss Olga, Bullseye, Louis, Boycie and, of course, Buster, the greatest canine star since Lassie.

In addition, Paul shares some of his favourite recipes, explores country lore and superstitions, and extols the benefits of growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruit. This is a warts-and-all account of country living, as far removed from the bright lights of celebrity as you could ever imagine. The trials and tribulations Paul experienced on moving to deepest darkest Kent as a dyed-in-the-wool city dweller are every bit as hilarious and eventful as you would think.
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'There's no tougher a mind, no more tender a voice than Paul Simon, and there's no better man than Robert Hilburn to decipher the (read more)

'There's no tougher a mind, no more tender a voice than Paul Simon, and there's no better man than Robert Hilburn to decipher the hardwiring of this hyperintellect...great songs can never be fully explained, but the great man on his way to find those songs surely can.' - Bono Through such hits as "The Sound of Silence," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Still Crazy After All These Years," and "Graceland," Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs for a half-century about alienation, doubt, survival, and faith in ways that have established him as one of the most honoured and beloved songwriters in American pop music history. Yet Simon has refused to talk to potential biographers and urged those close to him to also remain silent. But Simon not only agreed to talk to biographer Robert Hilburn for what has amounted to more than sixty hours, he also encouraged his family and friends to sit down for in-depth interviews.

Paul Simon is a revealing account of the challenges and sacrifices of artistry at the highest level. He has also lived a roller-coaster life of extreme ups and downs. We not only learn Paul's unrelenting drive to achieve artistry, but also the subsequent struggles to protect that artistry against distractions - fame, wealth, marriage, divorce, drugs, complacency, public rejection, self-doubt - that have frequently derailed pop stars and each of which he encountered. (hide)

The brand new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages. (read more)

The brand new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages. PERFECT SOUND WHATEVER is a love letter to the healing power of music, and how one man's obsessive quest saw him defeat the bullshit of one year with the beauty of another. Because that one man is James Acaster, it also includes tales of befouling himself in a Los Angeles steakhouse, stealing a cookie from Clint Eastwood, and giving drunk, unsolicited pep talks to urinating strangers.
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