A Pawtobiography


Book Description

Ted's sniff and tell It’s hard to believe Ted was once a skinny, unwanted pup who was dumped outside an animal shelter, before he found fame and fortune alongside Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse on the hit BBC series Gone Fishing. In this exclusive exposé, Ted reveals what it’s like working alongside two national treasures and what really happens when the cameras stop rolling. With searing honesty, he gives his unique viewpoint on living in a dog's world and he speaks about how you – yes you – can make it a better place for everyone. This is his story, in his own words. Nearly all of it is true.




Taking the Biscuit


Book Description

Hands up all those who think having a puppy is an easy, wholly joyful, stress-free experience? Those who said ‘yes’ are mad and should never own a dog – ever... Those who said ‘no’, read on... Taking the Biscuit is the hilarious tail (oops, tale) of Fizz’s first year with his hapless, if well-meaning, humans. His journey takes readers through the ups and downs of house training, coping with Bonfire Night and other bizarre human rituals, puppy school, neutering and separation issues (Fizz’s Nana can’t bear to be away from him for long). This helpful guide covers topics you won’t find in other training books, such as: choosing a vet, pet insurance, communication practices with other dog lovers, which poo bags to buy (important – seriously!) and much more. It emphasises the significant commitment, time and cost involved to give a dog a good home. Having a dog involves far more mud, trips to the vet and hairy lasagne than expected, and Fizz and his owner Helen wanted to share their story. Anyone who has ever loved a dog will enjoy Taking the Biscuit. Dog owners and anyone considering getting a dog will need this book. If more people act responsibly around animals, then fewer dogs will end up in shelters, relying on charity and waiting for someone lovely to come along and rescue them.Donations from sales go to aid animal rescue.




The Last Bloodline


Book Description

Beatrix Conoway, a little girl living in the fourteenth century, has her fate sealed by the blood flowing within her veins. Little does she know that her blood will also determine the fate of the entire world many centuries later when an event occurs that is even more horrific than the one she lives through.




Erotic Vagrancy


Book Description

'One of the very best biographies I have ever read' STEPHEN FRY 'A hot thunderstorm of a book' DAVID HARE 'Erotic Vagrancy gave me a week of pure joy' CRAIG BROWN 'Unputdownable' TONY PALMER 'A genius writer' LYNN BARBER Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were a Sixties supercharged couple in an era of supercharged couples. As a pairing they were fantasy figures, impossibly desirable. Liz supple and soft, in perfumes and furs - yet with something demonic and lethal about her. Dick, in turn, with his ravaged, handsome face, looked as though lit by silver moonlight - poised to turn into a wolf. Roger Lewis uses this glamorous and damaged pair as the starting point to tell the story of an age of excess: the freaks and groupies, the private jets and jewels and the yachts sailing in an azure sea; the magnificent bad taste and greed. It is about the clash of worlds: the filth and decay of South Wales and the grandeur and elegance of Old Hollywood; the fantasies we have about film stars and the fantasies the Burtons had about each other.




Benedict XVI: A Life Volume Two


Book Description

Emeritus Pope Benedict commanded both adulation and unremitting criticism. To millions, he was a beacon of light in a turbulent modern world. In this second volume of Peter Seewald's authoritative biography, the story continues from the Second Vatican Council (1965–8) right up to his resignation in 2013 - the first Pope to do so in almost 600 years. We see how Benedict was influenced by the Council and the ensuing political unrest all over Europe to move from a liberal perspective on the Church and the modern world to one that was profoundly conservative. Appointed in 1981 as prefect of the Congregation of Doctrine of the Faith, and quickly nicknamed 'God's Rottweiler', he proved to be intransigent on the controversial issues of abortion, contraception, gay rights and gay marriage. But elected Pope in 2005, his tenure of office was so riven with shocking revelations of controversy and scandal that it seemed that by the time of his resignation in 2013 he was incapable of handling the complexities of the Church in the modern world. Vatileaks, sexual abuse by priests, the Regensburg speech which became the spark of an eruption of anger and rage in the Muslim world – all these hit the world's media headlines. Peter Seewald was the only person who was close enough to Benedict to assess the man himself and to uncover the truth about so many of the controversial issues surrounding this most controversial papacy. Seewald has already published two books of interviews with Benedict and this book is based not just on meticulous research but on many hours of recorded interviews with Benedict himself. It will stand for many years as the definitive biography of Benedict XVI from an author with unrivalled access to the Pope Emeritus.




An Interrupted Life


Book Description

A collection of the diaries and letters of Etty Hillesum (1914-43) who lived in Amsterdam that were composed in the shadow of the Holocaust, but their interest lies in the light-filled mind that pervades them and in the internal journey they chart.




And Away...


Book Description

The number one bestseller and Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year by national treasure Bob Mortimer. ‘The most life-affirming, joyful read of the year’ - Sunday Times ‘Winningly heartfelt’ – The Guardian ‘A triumph’ – Daily Mail Bob Mortimer’s life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework for his hilarious and moving memoir, And Away… Although his childhood in Middlesbrough was normal on the surface, it was tinged by the loss of his dad, and his own various misadventures (now infamous from his appearances on Would I Lie to You?), from burning down the family home to starting a short-lived punk band called Dog Dirt. As an adult, he trained as a solicitor and moved to London. Though he was doing pretty well (the South London Press once crowned him ‘The Cockroach King’ after a successful verdict), a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with a young comedian going by the name Vic Reeves set his life on a different track. And now, six years on, the heart condition that once threatened his career has instead led to new success on BBC2’s Gone Fishing. Warm, profound, and irrepressibly funny, And Away… is Bob’s full life story (with a few lies thrown in for good measure.)




Letters from Tove


Book Description

A virtual memoir in letters by the beloved creator of the Moomins Tove Jansson’s works, even her famed Moomin books, fairly teem with letters of one kind or another, from messages bobbing in bottles to whole epistolary novels. Fortunately for her countless readers, her life was no different, unfolding as it did in the letters to family, friends, and lovers that make up this volume, a veritable autobiography over the course of six decades—and the only one Jansson ever wrote. And just as letters carry a weight of significance in Jansson’s writing, those she wrote throughout her life reflect the gravity of her circumstances, the depth of her thoughts and feelings, and the critical moments of humor, sadness, and grace that mark an artist’s days. These letters, penned with characteristic insight and wit, provide an almost seamless commentary on Jansson’s life within Helsinki’s bohemian circles and on her island home. Shifting between hope and despair, yearning and happiness, they describe her immersion in art studies and her ascension to fame with the Moomins. They speak frankly of friendship and love, loneliness and solidarity, and also of politics, art, literature, and society. They summon a particular place and time reflected through a mind finely attuned to her culture, her world, and her own nature—all clearly put into biographical and historical context by the volume’s editors, both longtime friends of Tove Jansson—and, in the end, draw a complex, intimate self-portrait of one of the world’s most beloved authors.




Sidemen: The Book


Book Description

Billions of you have watched their videos and millions of you have followed them on social media. So here we go; it's time to back up because YouTube superstars, The Sidemen, are finally here in book form and they're dishing the dirt on each other as well as the YouTube universe. There's nowhere to hide as KSI, Miniminter, Behzinga, Zerkaa,Vikkstar123, Wroetoshaw and Tobjizzle go in hard on their living habits, their football ability, and their dodgy clobber, while also talking Fifa, Vegas and superheroes. They'll also give you their grand house tour, letting you in on a few secrets, before showing you their hall of fame, as well as revealing some of their greatest shames. Along the way you'll learn how seven of the world's biggest YouTube stars started off with nothing more than a computer console, a PC and a bad haircut before joining forces to crush the internet. And they'll tell you just how they did it (because they're nice like that) with their ultimate guide to YouTube while also sharing their memories of recording their favourite videos as well as a typical day in the life of The Sidemen. You'll feel like you're with them every step of the way, smelling the 'sweet' aroma of the boys' favourite dishes in the kitchen, stamping your passport as you follow them on their trips around the world and kicking every ball as the boys gear up for the biggest football match of their lives. It's going to get personal. It's going to get intense, and JJ is going to have lots of tantrums, so take a moment to prepare yourself, because this is The Sidemen book you've been waiting for!




Bonzo's War


Book Description

What was it like to be a dog or cat when the world was at war? When food was rationed and cities were bombed? Pets (on the whole) do not write memoirs, so to find the answer to that question, Clare Campbell went in search of voices of those people whose lives were entwined with animals. She found stories - inspiring and harrowing - of animals under fire, of evacuated and homeless pets, of brave animals who provided comfort to humans while the bombs fell. Of pets unwittingly entangled in war, like the Dunkirk pets and the camp followers who switched sides to stay alive; and the 6,000 dogs recruited by the British Army - loaned for duty by their families - many never to return. Meanwhile with food in short supply, government officials launched a ruthless campaigns against pets... Thoroughly researched and deeply moving, Bonzo's War gives a fascinating account of, and platform for, the forgotten stories as yet unheard, of the creatures big and small caught up in a human conflict far beyond understanding.