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Showing 3261 - 3280 of 6447 items
By Alan Titchmarsh. 2009
When Alan left school at fifteen little was expected of him. An ‘O’ level in art is not the most…
obvious passport to success, but in the ancient greenhouses of the local nursery Mrs T’s little lad found his spiritual home, learning his trade and the strange ways of human nature.But the comfort and familiarity of his home in the Yorkshire Dales would soon be left behind as he journeyed south to college and then to Kew Gardens where he encountered rare plants collected by Captain Cook and a varied assortment of eccentrics in the world’s most famous garden.Spells as a teacher and editor followed, until fate took a hand when he landed a job on BBC’s Nationwide as their gardening presenter. His childhood dream of inheriting the mantle of gardening god Percy Thrower was beginning to come true...From the first faltering steps in radio and television, to a career in broadcasting and writing, Knave of Spades is a wonderfully warm and self-deprecatingly honest memoir. Alan Titchmarsh shows us just why he has become not only our favourite gardener, but a popular writer and broadcaster too.By Sir Terry Wogan Obe. 2009
Unadulterated Wogan - the voice of sanity in a world gone gently mad.Until recently, eight million people improved their mornings…
by tuning into Terry's words of wisdom on Wake up to Wogan. But was their appetite sated by this daily exposure? Not in the slightest. So it's lucky that Terry has been known to turn his hand to the odd bit of writing. This has allowed him to shed light on such weighty matters as how to survive a wedding, what Bank Holidays are for, why Eurovision could be responsible for the Celtic Tiger, whether we should watch out for potatoes, and where exactly it all went pear-shaped... WHERE WAS I? gives his devoted followers exactly what they want - the unadulterated, inimitable Wogan viewpoint; a droll, forthright voice of sanity in a world gone gently mad (or is it them?). Like his broadcasting, his writing is an effortless flow of easy wit and sage opinion. WHERE WAS I? builds up a picture not only of Terry's world, but of Terry himself - a man who somehow manages to be off the wall and on the money all at the same time.By Michael Parkinson. 2020
'a quietly impressive book, which does something most celebrity autobiographies shy away from: it seeks the truth and, more often…
than not, finds it.' - THE MAILA look at the life and times of the man Sir Michael most looked up to.It started in the shadow of the pithead in a South Yorkshire mining village and ended up in tears before an audience of millions. Michael Parkinson's relationship with his late father John William was, and remains, a family love story overflowing with tenderness and tall tales of sporting valour, usually involving Yorkshire cricket or Barnsley FC. However, it was the overwhelming grief which poured out of Michael when Piers Morgan pressed him about John William in a television interview - four decades after the death of the father he encapsulated as 'Yorkshireman, miner, humorist and fast bowler' - that convinced one of the outstanding broadcasters and journalists of our time to delve deeper into the dynamics of their lives together. Co-written with his son Mike, this affectionate and revealing memoir explores the influences which shaped John William, Michael and succeeding generations of Parkinsons. The journey leads them from the depths of a Yorkshire coal mine, via the chapel, pub and picture-house, to a spot behind the bowler's arm at Lord's and the sands at Scarborough. While Like Father, Like Son conveys a powerful sense of time and place, it is wit, insight and, above all, enduring love which shine through its pages.By Pat Sharp, Darren Richman, Luke Catterson. 2020
'The perfect antidote to 2020' Huffington Post'A must-read if you like funny things' Greg James'I had no idea Pat Sharp's…
life story would be so hilarious and I strongly suspect neither did he' Nish KumarPat Sharp is a man out of time.For those of a certain generation, he is an iconic figure synonymous with good fun, great hair and excess gunge. For others, he's just that bloke with a mullet. Fame is a fickle beast and, since the cancellation of Fun House in 1999 ('Just ten years into its run, when it was finally finding its feet'), Pat has become a reclusive figure, only emerging from his splendid isolation to pop up on things like I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Come Dine with Me. Until now.With time on his hands and now reliant on a faulty memory, Pat has expertly blended fact and . . . fiction: revealing all about his adventures with David Hassselhoff at the Berlin Wall in 1989; how he broke up a fight between Damon Albarn and Liam Gallagher at a house party; the time he suggested Geri's dress be a Union Jack; and much more.A definitive work (based on very little fact) that anatomises the cultural trends of the '80s and '90s, Re-run the Fun is just the kind of sorta-biography we need in these turbulent times. Finally, the Great British public can learn what life is like just about in sight of the top - the highs, the lows and the hair tips.'It's easy to forget, as I had, that Pat Sharp is so much more than an iconic haircut and a helter-skelter - and this well overdue book goes into hilarious, largely-fabricated detail about Pat's critical role in shaping our world today' Rick Edwards'No previous knowledge of Pat Sharp is required' Paul SinhaBy Lesley-Ann Jones. 2021
WHO - OR WHAT - WAS THE REAL LOVE OF FREDDIE MERCURY'S LIFE?Millions of Queen and screen fans who watched…
the Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody believe that Mary Austin, the woman he could never quite let go of, was the love of Freddie Mercury's life. But the truth is infinitely more complicated.Best-selling biographer and music writer Lesley-Ann Jones explores the charismatic frontman's romantic encounters, from his boarding school years in Panchgani, India to his tragic, final, bed-ridden days in his magnificent London mansion. She reveals why none of his love interests ever perfected the art of being Freddie's life partner.In Love of My Life, the author follows him through his obsessions with former shop girl Mary, German actress Barbara Valentin and Irish-born barber boyfriend Jim Hutton. She explores his adoration of globally fêted Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé. She delves into his intimate friendship with Elton John, and probes his imperishable bonds with his fellow band members. She deconstructs his complicated relationship with the 'food of love' - his music - and examines closely his voracious appetite for - what some would call his fatal addiction to - sex. Which of these was the real love of Freddie Mercury's life? Was any of them? Drawing on personal interviews and first-hand encounters, this moving book brings to the fore a host of Freddie's lesser-known loves, weaving them in and out of the passions that consumed him. The result, a mesmerising portrait of a legendary rock star, is unputdownable. Love of My Life, published during the year of the 30th anniversary of his death and that would have seen his 75th birthday, is Lesley-Ann's personal and compassionate tribute to an artist she has revered for as long as she has written about music and musicians.By Delta Goodrem. 2021
The emotional stories behind Delta Goodrem&’s sixth studio album. This eBook features an exclusive bonus chapter about the song Power…
from the Bridge Over Troubled Dreams album. In her first-ever book, Australian singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem shares the intimate stories behind each of the tracks on her sixth studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Dreams, taking readers on a deep dive into her inspiration for each song and revealing the truth behind the lyrics. From the touching account of her birth – two months premature – to battling bouts of missing home and many incredible self-discoveries along the way, Bridge Over Troubled Dreams is truly the book of the artist&’s life. She speaks candidly about love, family, highs and lows, patience, freedom, faith, hope and survival, and how she uses lessons learned to drive herself forward. Delta&’s heartfelt stories are accompanied by never-before-seen pictures from her personal collection: candid behind-the-scenes shots, unreleased tour photos and even personal snaps from her childhood.By Lisa Rogak. 2020
The first biography of the most popular anchor in cable news.Rachel Maddow has beaten the odds in a way that’s…
novel in today’s America: she uses her brain. In a world of banal and opinionated soundbites, she regularly crushes Sean Hannity’s ratings thanks to her deeply researched reports. And in our highly polarized world, Maddow amiably engages the staunchest conservatives, while never hesitating to expose their light-on-facts defenses. As a result, she's become the top anchor for MSNBC and a beloved representative for all that progressive America holds dear. The news that Maddow was the first publicly-out lesbian to anchor a prime-time TV news show seemed almost anticlimactic to her millions of viewers, who will be surprised and intrigued by little-known details of her life, as written by New York Times bestselling biographer Lisa Rogak. Growing up in a conservative California town – and viewing herself as a perennial outsider – helped spark an early interest in activism. After attending Stanford and Oxford, she opted for a minimum-wage job as a radio DJ in a tiny Massachusetts market while finishing her Ph.D. She planned to pursue a career as an activist, but 9/11 changed all that, so she returned to local radio where she could help listeners by "explaining stuff." A stint at Air America raised her national profile, which led to her groundbreaking MSNBC show where she dissects the news of the day with an approach found nowhere else on TV.By Susan Orlean. 2011
He believed the dog was immortal. So begins Susan Orlean's sweeping, powerfully moving account of Rin Tin Tin's journey from…
orphaned puppy to movie star and international icon. Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker who has been hailed as "a national treasure" by The Washington Post, spent nearly ten years researching and reporting her most captivating book to date: the story of a dog who was born in 1918 and never died. It begins on a battlefield in France during World War I, when a young American soldier, Lee Duncan, discovered a newborn German shepherd in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel. To Duncan, who came of age in an orphanage, the dog's survival was a miracle. He saw something in Rin Tin Tin that he felt compelled to share with the world. Duncan brought Rinty home to California, where the dog's athleticism and acting ability drew the attention of Warner Bros. Over the next ten years, Rinty starred in twenty-three blockbuster silent films that saved the studio from bankruptcy and made him the most famous dog in the world. At the height of his popularity, Rin Tin Tin was Hollywood's number one box office star. During the decades that followed, Rinty and his descendants rose and fell with the times, making a tumultuous journey from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color, from radio programs to one of the most popular television shows of the baby boom era, The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin. The canine hero's legacy was cemented by Duncan and a small group of others--including Bert Leonard, the producer of the TV series, and Daphne Hereford, the owner of the current Rin Tin Tin--who have dedicated their lives to making sure the dog's legend will never die. At its core, Rin Tin Tin is a poignant exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. It is also a richly textured history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship. It spans ninety years and explores everything from the shift in status of dogs from working farmhands to beloved family members, from the birth of obedience training to the evolution of dog breeding, from the rise of Hollywood to the past and present of dogs in war. Filled with humor and heart and moments that will move you to tears, Susan Orlean's first original book since The Orchid Thief is an irresistible blend of history, human interest, and masterful storytelling--a dazzling celebration of a great American dog by one of our most gifted writers.By Barry Sonnenfeld. 2020
Film and television director Barry Sonnenfeld's outrageous and hilarious memoir traces his idiosyncratic upbringing in New York City, his breaking…
into film as a cinematographer with the Coen brothers, and his unexpected career as the director behind such huge film franchises as The Addams Family and Men in Black, and beloved work like Get Shorty, Pushing Daises, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.Barry Sonnenfeld's philosophy is, "Regret the Past. Fear the Present. Dread the Future." Told in his unmistakable voice, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother is a laugh-out-loud memoir about coming of age. Constantly threatened with suicide by his over-protective mother, disillusioned by the father he worshiped, and abused by a demonic relative, Sonnenfeld somehow went on to become one of Hollywood's most successful producers and directors.Written with poignant insight and real-life irony, the book follows Sonnenfeld from childhood as a French horn player through graduate film school at NYU, where he developed his talent for cinematography. His first job after graduating was shooting nine feature length pornos in nine days. From that humble entrée, he went on to form a friendship with the Coen Brothers, launching his career shooting their first three films.Though Sonnenfeld had no ambition to direct, Scott Rudin convinced him to be the director of The Addams Family. It was a successful career move. He went on to direct many more films and television shows. Will Smith once joked that he wanted to take Sonnenfeld to Philadelphia public schools and say, "If this guy could end up as a successful film director on big budget films, anyone can." This book is a fascinating and hilarious roadmap for anyone who thinks they can't succeed in life because of a rough beginning.By Jodi Picoult. 2020
Order Jodi Picoult's stunning new novel about life, death, and missed opportunities. THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A writer the…
world should be reading right now.' IndependentWho would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are now? Dawn is a death doula, and spends her life helping people make the final transition peacefully. But when the plane she's on plummets, she finds herself thinking not of the perfect life she has, but the life she was forced to abandon fifteen years ago - when she left behind a career in Egyptology, and a man she loved. Against the odds, she survives, and the airline offers her a ticket to wherever she needs to get to - but the answer to that question suddenly seems uncertain. As the path of her life forks in two very different directions, Dawn must confront questions she's never truly asked: what does a well-lived life look like? What do we leave behind when we go? And do we make our choices, or do our choices make us?Two possible futures. One impossible choice. ----------------------------------------------------------------'It is hard to exaggerate how well Picoult writes.' Financial Times 'A matchless talent for hitting emotional notes.' Irish Times'A wise, cerebral, propulsive adventure . . . eruditely spans the worlds of Egyptology, university physics and end-of-life care, while never losing sight of its high-stakes human story . . . a captivatingly immersive, multilayered, painstakingly researched and impressively realised exploration of deeply human geographies.' The Sunday Times'This complex, time-shifting romance combines moral hazard with Wuthering Heights echoes and degree-level Egyptology. And there aren't many books you can say that about.' Daily MailBy Will Sergeant. 2021
The Sunday Times bestsellerGrowing up in Liverpool in the 1960s and '70s, when skinheads, football violence and fear of just…
about everything was the natural order of things, a young Will Sergeant found the emerging punk scene provided a shimmer of hope amongst a crumbling city still reeling from the destruction of the Second World War. From school-day horrors and mud flinging fun to nights at Liverpool's punk club, Eric's, Sergeant was fuelled by and thrived on music. It was this devotion that led to the birth of the Bunnymen, to the days when he and Ian McCulloch would muck around with reel-to-reel recordings of song ideas in the back parlour of his parents' council estate house, and to finding a community - friends, enemies and many in between - with those who would become post-punk royalty from the likes of Dead or Alive, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Teardrop Explodes to name a few.It was an uphill struggle to carve their name in the history of Liverpool music, but Echo and the Bunnymen became iconic, with songs like 'Lips Like Sugar,' 'The Cutter' and 'The Killing Moon'. By turns wry, explicit and profound, Bunnyman reveals what it was really like to be part of one of the most important British bands of the 1980s.By Jim Cullen. 2021
More than perhaps any other major filmmaker, Martin Scorsese has grappled with the idea of the American Dream. His movies…
are full of working-class strivers hoping for a better life, from the titular waitress and aspiring singer of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore to the scrappy Irish immigrants of Gangs of New York. And in films as varied as Casino, The Aviator, and The Wolf of Wall Street, he vividly displays the glamour and power that can come with the fulfillment of that dream, but he also shows how it can turn into a nightmare of violence, corruption, and greed. This book is the first study of Scorsese’s profound ambivalence toward the American Dream, the ways it drives some men and women to aspire to greatness, but leaves others seduced and abandoned. Showing that Scorsese understands the American dream in terms of a tension between provincialism and cosmopolitanism, Jim Cullen offers a new lens through which to view such seemingly atypical Scorsese films as The Age of Innocence, Hugo, and Kundun. Fast-paced, instructive, and resonant, Martin Scorsese and the American Dream illuminates an important dimension of our national life and how a great artist has brought it into focus.By Sheila Keenan, Who Hq. 2021
Your favorite characters are now part of the Who HQ library!The Mummy joins other classic horror characters Dracula and Frankenstein…
in our What Is the Story Of? series.Unlike the other classic Universal horror movie monsters of their time, the Mummy's origins can't be found in the pages of a book. His story was inspired by the opening of King Tut's tomb in 1922. The world fell in love with all things Egyptian and was enthralled with stories of ancient mummies. The film producers of the early Dracula and Frankenstein films wasted no time creating a character who's been creeping out of his coffin and entertaining audiences since 1932. Author Sheila Keenan explains the history of the movie and its remakes, the legendary curse of King Tut's mummy, and what lies ahead for this monstrous creature.By Gina Yashere. 2021
The British comedian of Nigerian heritage and co-executive producer and writer of the CBS hit series Bob Hearts Abishola chronicles her odyssey…
to get to America and break into Hollywood in this lively and humorous memoir. According to family superstition, Gina Yashere was born to fulfill the dreams of her grandmother Patience. The powerful first wife of a wealthy businessman, Patience was poisoned by her jealous sister-wives and marked with a spot on her neck. From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark—a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir, and would fulfill Patience’s dreams. Gina would learn to speak perfect English, live unfettered by men or children, work a man’s job, and travel the world with a free spirit.Is she the reincarnation of her grandmother? Maybe. Gina isn’t ruling anything out. In Cack-Handed, she recalls her intergenerational journey to success foretold by her grandmother and fulfilled thousands of miles from home. This hilarious memoir tells the story of how from growing up as a child of Nigerian immigrants in working class London, running from skinheads, and her overprotective Mom, Gina went on to become the first female engineer with the UK branch of Otis, the largest elevator company in the world, where she went through a baptism of fire from her racist and sexist co-workers. Not believing her life was difficult enough, she later left engineering to become a stand up comic, appearing on numerous television shows and becoming one of the top comedians in the UK, before giving it all up to move to the US, a dream she’d had since she was six years old, watching American kids on television, riding cool bicycles, and solving crimes. A collection of eccentric, addictive, and uproarious stories that combine family, race, gender, class, and country, Cack-Handed reveals how Gina’s unconventional upbringing became the foundation of her successful career as an international comedian.By Cecily Strong. 2021
A powerful memoir from the Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong about grieving the death of her cousin—and embracing…
the life-affirming lessons he taught her—amid the coronavirus pandemic.Cecily Strong had a special bond with her cousin Owen. And so she was devastated when, in early 2020, he passed away at age thirty from the brain cancer glioblastoma. Before Strong could attempt to process her grief, another tragedy struck: the coronavirus pandemic. Following a few harrowing weeks in the virus epicenter of New York City, Strong relocated to an isolated house in the woods upstate. Here, trying to make sense of Owen&’s death and the upended world, she spent much of the ensuing months writing. The result is This Will All Be Over Soon—a raw, unflinching memoir about loss, love, laughter, and hope. Befitting the time-warped year of 2020, the diary-like approach deftly weaves together the present and the past. Strong chronicles the challenges of beginning a relationship during the pandemic and the fear when her new boyfriend contracts COVID. She describes the pain of losing her friend and longtime Saturday Night Live staff member Hal Willner to the virus. She reflects on formative events from her life, including how her high school expulsion led to her pursuing a career in theater and, years later, landing at SNL. Yet the heart of the book is Owen. Strong offers a poignant account of her cousin&’s life, both before and after his diagnosis. Inspired by his unshakable positivity and the valuable lessons he taught her, she has written a book that—as indicated by its title—serves as a moving reminder: whatever challenges life might throw one&’s way, they will be over soon. And so will life. So make sure to appreciate every day and don&’t take a second of it for granted.By Robert Sellers. 2013
Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came…
within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons.For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new insight into a man seen by many as merely a brawling, boozing hellraiser. And yet he was so much more than this. For behind that image, which all too often he played up to in public, was a vastly complex individual, a man of deep passions and loyalty but also deep-rooted vulnerability and insecurities. Why was a proud, patriotic, intelligent, successful and erudite man so obsessed about proving himself to others, time and time again?Although the Reed myth is of Homeric proportions, he remains a national treasure and somewhat peculiar icon.Praise for other books by Robert Sellers:Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed: 'So wonderfully captures the wanton belligerence of both binging and stardom you almost feel the guys themselves are telling the tales.' GQ.Vic Armstrong: The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman:'This is the best and most original behind-the-scenes book I have read in years, gripping and revealing.' Roger Lewis, Daily Mail.Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: '...a rollicking good read... Sellers has done well to capture a vivid snapshot of this exciting time.' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times.By Cicely Tyson. 2021
“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only succeeded as an actor, she has shaped the course…
of history.” –President Barack Obama, 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony"Just As I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson A New York Times BestsellerBy Daniela Legarda. 2021
Un testimonio inspirador para entender que ningún sueño es demasiado grande. Daniela Legarda es una de las influenciadoras más reconocidas…
de Colombia. Nos cuenta en este libro su historia y la de su familia, desde que emigraron a Estados Unidos en busca de mejores oportunidades. Daniela descubrió que su pasión era ser creadora de contenido, y justo cuando su carrera empezó a despegar, su hermano Fabio murió trágicamente, conmocionando a millones de personas. En este inspirador testimonio la autora nos relata cómo vivió su duelo frente al mundo entero, qué herramientas la ayudaron a superar la depresión y la ansiedad en el momento más difícil de su vida, y nos demuestra que todos podemos superar los obstáculos que se nos presenten. Sin límites es un libro conmovedor que nos invita a perseguir nuestros sueños.By Sarah Kozloff. 2020
When Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault proclaimed the "death of the author" fifty years ago, they did so in the…
name of freedom. They could never have foreseen that its indiscriminate embrace by many film theorists would turn the anti-authorship stance into a restrictive orthodoxy. Sarah Kozloff daringly advocates a new paradigm, a theory of film authorship that takes into account flesh-and-blood filmmakers, including their biographies, their intentions and their collaborations. Building upon scholarship by Noël Carroll, Paisley Livingstone, Robert Carringer and Paul Sellors, Kozloff argues that we watch films in large part to feel a sense of communion with the people behind them. Writing with clarity and verve, Kozloff moves gracefully back and forth between film history and film theory. She offers an extended examination of The Red Kimona (1925) in order to demonstrate how knowledge about the people who created this intriguing early feminist movie can change a viewer's interpretation. "I believe art works are made by people operating (struggling) within their historical moment. Without denying or downplaying larger cultural forces – indeed, while drawing them into the mix – I want to study films from this standpoint. Yet, I do not think of myself as a naïve fan. Filmmakers as famous, successful celebrities hold no interest for me. If I am teaching or studying a film, however, I do want to know how the filmmakers' biographies, intentions and agency combine with these larger social structures to influence the text before me." — Sarah KozloffBy Jane Smiley. 2002
Superb, highly accessible biography of one of the giants of English literature by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A THOUSAND…
ACRES'Engaging and stimulating' Simon Callow'Jane Smiley, in her admirable contribution to Weidenfeld's series of short biographies, deals briskly with Dickens's career and works, and treats with sympathy and sense his relations with the women in his life' LITERARY REVIEWFrom a bitter and poverty-stricken childhood to a career as the most acclaimed and best loved writer in the English-speaking world, Charles Dickens had a life as full of incident as any of those he created in his novels of life in Victorian England. The enormous quantity of work, his public readings and his difficult relationships has made him a figure of enduring fascination. In this biography Jane Smiley reveals Charles Dickens as his contemporaries would have done, getting to know him more intimately than ever before. At the same time Smiley offers interpretations of almost all of Dickens' major works, showing how 'his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels'.