Biography

In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now (read more)

In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. He was told to prepare for a forty-eight hour operation. In the end, he and his men were under siege for thirty-one days - one of the longest such sieges in the whole of the Afghan campaign.

Kailash Limbu recalls the terrifying and exciting details of those thirty-one days - in which they killed an estimated one hundred Taliban fighters - and intersperses them with the story of his own life as a villager from the Himalayas. He grew up in a place without roads or electricity and didn't see a car until he was fifteen. Kailash's descriptions of Gurkha training and rituals - including how to use the lethal Kukri knife - are eye-opening and fascinating.

Pub Date:05/05/2016 (hide)

'It was the start of the third lap of the 2010 Senior TT, the last race of the fortnight. The last chance to get a TT win for another (read more)

'It was the start of the third lap of the 2010 Senior TT, the last race of the fortnight. The last chance to get a TT win for another year, and I was pushing hard. Ballagarey.

The kind of corner that makes me continue road racing. A proper man's corner. You go through the right-hander at something like 170mph, leant right over, eyes fixed as far down the road as I can see.

But this time something happened. This time the front end tucked .' Guy Martin, international road-racing legend, maverick star of the Isle of Man TT, truck mechanic and TV presenter, lives on the edge, addicted to speed, thoroughly exhilarated by danger. In this book we'll get inside his head as he stares death in the face, and risks his life in search of the next high. (hide)

'I was never going to sleep in and take it easy, there were worms to catch.' In August 2015 Guy Martin crashed out of the lead of (read more)

'I was never going to sleep in and take it easy, there were worms to catch.' In August 2015 Guy Martin crashed out of the lead of an Ulster Grand Prix superbike race held on the world's fastest racetrack. He had invasive surgery to bolt his broken spine and hand back together, and within days he decided he needed some time away from road racing. But he wasn't about to take it easy...In his brand new book, discover how Britain's favourite daredevil fills his time when road racing is taken out of the equation.

He set about breaking records on the world's biggest Wall of Death; cycling 2,745 miles across the length of the United States (while sleeping rough); attempting to be the fastest person ever on two wheels and travelling to Latvia to investigate his family's roots. There's some thrilling racing too, including wild Harley choppers on dirt and turbo-charged Transit vans through the Nevada desert. And there's the day job to get back to in North Lincolnshire - the truck yard and the butty van. (hide)

'The maddest 12 months of my life. The journey starts with an oddball race up an American mountain and ends with me checking myself (read more)

'The maddest 12 months of my life. The journey starts with an oddball race up an American mountain and ends with me checking myself out of hospital with a broken back. Again...' As Guy Martin's grandfather Voldemars frequently reminded him,'When you dead, you dead.' So, before it's all over, Guy Martin is making the most of the time he's got.

In this past year alone, Guy has raced the Isle of Man TT and finished on the podium; bike trekked through India; competed in solo 24-hour bicycles races; flown a stunt plane; broken a go-kart speed record down a French mountain and dusted himself off after a dramatic crash at the Dunrod 150 Superbike race. And he's done all this around his day job as a truck mechanic. But let Guy tell you about it himself: "This book starts in a Transit, ends in a Transit, and in between I've raced a few pushbikes, raced a few motorbikes and got a fair few stories to tell you." (Spot on).

Pub Date:05/05/2016 (hide)

He began by reading the front page of the evening newspaper in the kitchen to his mother and aunt. Since then he's spoken into microphones (read more)

He began by reading the front page of the evening newspaper in the kitchen to his mother and aunt. Since then he's spoken into microphones to the nation on the BBC almost every week for more than half a century and is one of the most-beloved broadcasters of our time.

Presenter of treasured programmes Newsround, Countryfile and Swap Shop, John brought us the headlines and breaking news of our childhood and later helped us discover the magic and wonder of the British countryside. Now, in his first ever autobiography, he recounts a life in news starting with the Grimthorpe Street Gazette, the handwritten newspaper he produced in his early teens - just one copy at a time, so small beginnings. Later, broadcasting on television to millions of children, his casual style of news-reading even found his jumpers making news. (hide)

"The Heart of the Dales" is the fifth volume in Gervase Phinn's bestselling "Dales" series. A teacher was reprimanding a child who (read more)

"The Heart of the Dales" is the fifth volume in Gervase Phinn's bestselling "Dales" series. A teacher was reprimanding a child who had drawn a very wobbly line freehand across his exercise book. 'Don't you know what the word "straight" means?' the teacher asked crossly.' 'Yes, miss,' came the reply, ' "without water"'.

Awkward teachers, pompous school governors and fearsome lollipop ladies occasionally make Gervase Phinn's hectic job as a school inspector more than difficult. But, for Gervase, the main challenge remains the frankly spoken children. The new school year doesn't get off to a good start after a teacher suggests that Gervase has let him and his school down. (hide)

I'm not on my own because I've been sitting crying into a handkerchief or apron over a lack of interested men. I've been made every (read more)

I'm not on my own because I've been sitting crying into a handkerchief or apron over a lack of interested men. I've been made every offer imaginable over the years. Men offer themselves, their sons...drunk fathers sometimes call me up and say things like: "Do you need a farmhand?" "I can lift the hay bales" "I can repair your tractors"...

Heida is a solitary farmer with a flock of 500 sheep in a remorseless area bordering Iceland's highlands. It's known as the End of the World. One of her nearest neighbours is Iceland's most notorious volcano, Katla, which has periodically driven away the inhabitants of Ljotarstadir ever since people first started farming there in the twelfth century. (hide)

You become a footballer because you love football. And then you are a footballer, and you're suddenly in the strangest, most baffling (read more)

You become a footballer because you love football. And then you are a footballer, and you're suddenly in the strangest, most baffling world of all. A world where one team-mate comes to training in a bright red suit with matching top-hat, cane and glasses, without any actual glass in them, and another has so many sports cars they forget they have left a Porsche at the train station.

Even when their surname is incorporated in the registration plate. So walk with me into the dressing-room, to find out which players refuse to touch a football before a game, to discover why a load of millionaires never have any shower-gel, and to hear what Cristiano Ronaldo says when he looks at himself in the mirror. We will go into post-match interviews, make fools of ourselves on social media and try to ensure that we never again pay GBP250 for a haircut that should have cost a tenner.
(hide)

'The naughtiest, helpiest, laughieoutloudiest and goodest book I've ever done reading on. Give that girl a banana!' DAWN FRENCH *****THE (read more)

'The naughtiest, helpiest, laughieoutloudiest and goodest book I've ever done reading on. Give that girl a banana!' DAWN FRENCH *****THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSARAH MILLICAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH, FEEL NORMAL AND PROBABLY SNIFF YOUR LEGGINGS. Part autobiography, part self help, part confession, part celebration of being a common-or-garden woman, part collection of synonyms for nunny, Sarah Millican's debut book delves into her super normal life with daft stories, funny tales and proper advice on how to get past life's blips - like being good at school but not good at friends, the excitement of IBS and how to blossom post divorce. (hide)

Life is always better backstage, isn't it?'Who better than Caitlin Moran to bring fame down to earth with a bump' - Helen Fielding, (read more)

Life is always better backstage, isn't it?'Who better than Caitlin Moran to bring fame down to earth with a bump' - Helen Fielding, bestselling author of Bridget Jones's DiaryThe Sunday Times Number One bestseller about a young women making it in a world where men hold all the power ----------------------------------------------------I'm Johanna Morrigan, and I live in London in 1995, at the epicentre of Britpop. I might only be nineteen, but I'm wise enough to know that everyone around me is handling fame very, very badly. My unrequited love, John Kite, has scored an unexpected Number One album, then exploded into a Booze And Drugs HellTM - as rockstars do.

And my new best friend - the maverick feminist Suzanne Banks, of The Branks - has amazing hair, but writer's block and a rampant pill problem. So I've decided I should become a Fame Doctor. I'm going to use my new monthly column for The Face to write about every ridiculous, surreal, amazing aspect of a million people knowing your name. (hide)