Biography

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.
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'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)

Pub Date:27/02/2015 - At the age of twenty-one, Monica Baldwin - the niece of Stanley Baldwin - entered one of the oldest and most (read more)

Pub Date:27/02/2015 - At the age of twenty-one, Monica Baldwin - the niece of Stanley Baldwin - entered one of the oldest and most strictly enclosed contemplative orders of the Roman Catholic Church. At the age of forty-eight, and after struggling with her vocation for many years, she obtained a special rescript from Rome and left the convent. But the world Monica had known and forsaken in 1914 was very different to the world into which she emerged at the height of the Second World War ...This is the fascinating account of one woman's two very different lives, with revealing descriptions of the world of a novice, the duties of a nun's day, and the spiritual aspects of convent life.

Interwoven with these are the trials and tribulations of coping with a new and alien world, as the author is confronted with fashions, interventions, politics and art totally unfamiliar to her. Written in the post-war years, this re-issue is as fresh and engaging today as it ever was. Humour, intelligence, an endearing humility and a searing honesty all characterize this remarkable classic, giving readers both a glimpse into a hidden world and a unique view on one more familiar. (hide)

'I was crying so much I couldn't breathe. The thought of leaving the shopping centre without him was crushing. I knew that walking (read more)

'I was crying so much I couldn't breathe. The thought of leaving the shopping centre without him was crushing. I knew that walking away from the place where he had gone missing, without any idea where he now was, meant that things were really bad.

James had been right by my side and then he was gone forever.'On 12th February 1993, Denise Fergus' life changed forever. As she was running errands at New Strand Shopping Centre, she let go of her two-year-old son's hand for a few seconds to take out her purse. Denise never saw her son again.
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With a foreword by Eddy Merckx The world of professional cycling is fraught with fierce competition, fervent dedication and unerring (read more)

With a foreword by Eddy Merckx The world of professional cycling is fraught with fierce competition, fervent dedication and unerring ambition, and only a handful of competitors reach iconic status. Among them is Sir Bradley Wiggins - a man uniquely placed to reflect on the history of this remarkable sport and its unforgettable titans. In Icons, Wiggins takes the reader on an extraordinarily intimate journey through the sport, presenting key pieces from his never-before-seen collection of memorabilia.

Over the course of his illustrious career, he amassed hundreds of items - often gifts from its greatest and most controversial figures. Each reflects an icon, a race or a moment that fundamentally influenced Wiggins on both a personal and professional level. By exploring the lives and achievements of 21 of the sport's key figures - among them Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain and Tom Simpson - Wiggins sheds new light on what professional cycling demands of its best competitors. (hide)

From starring as the ruthlessly ingenious drug lord 'Stringer' Bell in the iconic HBO series The Wire, to playing Madiba himself (read more)

From starring as the ruthlessly ingenious drug lord 'Stringer' Bell in the iconic HBO series The Wire, to playing Madiba himself in the long-awaited biopic of Nelson Mandela, it has been some journey for Idris Elba. From humble beginnings, a second generation immigrant born in Hackney, London, Elba set up his own wedding DJ business at the age of 14 but, encouraged by his drama teacher to pursue his natural talent, won a place at the National Youth Music Theatre. Although possessed of a brooding screen presence which served him so well as DCI John Luther in the BBC's terrifying crime drama series Luther, 2016 will show a whole new side to Idris as he forays into the voice acting world as villainous tiger Shere Khan in The Jungle Book remake and even a role in Pixar centrepiece Finding Dory.

He inhabits each role as if he were born to play it. But what of the man himself? In this, the only biography of the onscreen legend, Nadia Cohen reveals Elba's life behind the lens, exploring what makes him so ambitious, adaptable and endlessly watchable. His charisma has won him admirers on both sides of the Atlantic, and the role of Bond may yet beckon.

Pub Date:07/07/2016 (hide)

Christopher Lloyd has been writing a weekly column in "Country Life" since 1963 and, until now, this wealth of garden literature (read more)

Christopher Lloyd has been writing a weekly column in "Country Life" since 1963 and, until now, this wealth of garden literature has been denied to a wider public. There are many garden writers, but few whose work can be considered to have the status of literature. There is only one who has achieved this at the same time as delivering horticultural information which enlightens even the most erudite of plantsmen, and that is Christopher Lloyd.

His prose is exciting; his knowledge is vast; his ideas are provocative, and what is the true test of a writer who has transcended his medium, he makes you laugh out loud. In this selection from the storehouse of Christopher Lloyd's prose it will be apparent to what a high degree he has influenced gardening in our times. The book will capture the essence of Christopher Lloyd and of his garden at Great Dixter. (hide)

'This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party (read more)

'This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party - or the parsonage.' Antonia Fraser'A refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity.' Amanda Foreman'Brilliant and very moving, this book is a fascinating and original exploration of Jane Austen with lots of new material - Worsley brings Austen to life superbly, through her pages she is a flesh and blood woman, intelligent, powerful, contradictory, loving, loved. A magnificent book.' Kate WilliamsOn the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved novelist quietly changed the world.This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle.

Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.
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This is my life, not the stuff you've seen, but the things you haven't. This is my childhood growing up in the West Country, my struggles, (read more)

This is my life, not the stuff you've seen, but the things you haven't. This is my childhood growing up in the West Country, my struggles, my doubts and my hopes. It's the people I've met in my seventeen years in Formula One, many of whom I've loved, some of whom I definitely haven't.

It's the laughs I've shared, the battles I've fought, some on the track with rivals and friends like Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. It's the pressure I struggled with as I closed in on my World Championship in 2009, it's the calm I felt every time I settled into the cockpit. It's my dad - the many times he saved me, the one moment he doubted me, the hole in my life he left me. (hide)