Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Ruth Jones

James Corden

Gavin & Stacey’ is a TV series like no other. Now, for the first time, its creators James Corden and Ruth Jones tell the full extraordinary story of how they turned their little show into a full-on cultural phenomenon. 
 
As they recount the rejection, obstacles and challenges they faced on the way to giving birth to their beloved comedy creation, James and Ruth also explore the flourishing of their own real-life friendship. While their now legendary on-screen characters Nessa and Smithy had a profound awkwardness to negotiate, culminating in that marriage proposal in the 2019 Christmas special, Ruth and James forged a magical relationship of mutual support based also on a deep, shared sense of subversive fun. 
 
Here, from their tentative initial pitch to the emotionally overwhelming final day of filming, the duo detail what’s occurred every step of the way, bouncing off each other in inimitable style. Full of revelations and never-before-heard stories, this is a one-of-a-kind book about a show that’s already gone down in history.

When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between

A Story of Love and Friendship

Joe Wilkinson

Henry Paker

‘Joyfully absurd and hilarious.’ ADAM KAY 
'One of the funniest things I’ve ever read. It is brilliant.' CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN 
 
Here before you is Joe Wilkinson's brilliantly absurd and utterly fictional account of his time on - and briefly off - planet Earth. 
 
Through cartoon stories (illustrated by Henry Paker) Joe recounts the defining moments and bizarre encounters of his imaginary life – from his schoolboy misfortunes to his formative years on the dating scene, to his money-making schemes and globetrotting adventures. 
 
With tall stories including… 
 
-Winning ‘most nits’ at school 
-That time I threw a turd into a tornado 
-Becoming the bad boy of fly tipping 
-The disastrous double date 
-My car airbag addiction 
-The time I tunnelled too far out of prison and ended up in the prison next door 
-The real reason Bigfoot went into hiding 
 
…this book is a delightfully absurd journey into the mind of a comic maverick. 
 
Hilarious, heart-warming and utterly unique, Joe Wilkinson: My Autobiography is the off-the-wall life story of one of our most beloved and unorthodox comedians.

My (Illustrated) Autobiography

Ronan Tynan

In Halfway Home, Ronan Tynan, a member of the enormously popular Irish Tenors, shares his moving life story - a story Barbara Walters calls 'so amazing you may find it hard to believe' - of overcoming adversity and attaining worldwide success in several different fields. 
 
Diagnosed with a lower-limb disability at birth, Tynan had his legs amputated below the knee when he was twenty years old. Eight weeks later, he was climbing the stairs of his college dormitory, and within a year, he was winning races in the Paralympic Games, amassing eighteen gold medals and fourteen world records. After becoming the first disabled person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education, he served a short stint in the prosthetics industry and began a new career in medicine. He continued his studies at Trinity College, where he specialized in orthopaedic sports injuries. 
 
After earning his medical degree, Tynan chose music for the next act in his life. Less than one year after he began studying voice, he won both the John McCormack Cup for Tenor Voice and the BBC talent show Go For It. He went on to win the prestigious International Operatic Singing Competition in France, and in 1998 his debut Sony album, My Life Belongs to You, became a top-five hit in England within just two weeks and eventually went platinum. Later that year, he was invited to join The Irish Tenors, furthering a journey that started in a small Irish village and has brought him to the world's grandest stages.

Halfway Home

Paul O'Grady

THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER 
 
'Warmly funny, dry and mischievous . . . Genuine and brilliant.' Daily Mail 
 
Paul O'Grady is one of Britain's very best loved entertainers. He is known and adored by millions, whether as the creator of the acid-tongued Blonde Bombsite, Lily Savage, the presenter of the fantastically successful, award-winning Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4 or the massive hit ITV show, For the Love of Dogs. 
 
 
Now, in his own unique voice, Paul O'Grady tells story of his early life in Irish Catholic Birkenhead that started him on the long and winding road from mischievous altar boy to national treasure. It is a brilliantly evoked, hilarious and often moving tale of gossip in the back yard, bragging in the corner shop and slanging matches on the front doorstep, populated by larger-than-life characters with hearts of gold and tongues as sharp as razors. 
 
At My Mother's Knee features an unforgettable cast of rogues, rascals, lovers, fighters, saints and sinners - and one iconic bus conductress. It's a book which really does have something for everyone and which reminds us that, when all's said and done, there's a bit of savage in all of us... 
 
Readers love At My Mother's Knee: 
 
'I laughed, I cried, I couldn't put it down and the characters really just jumped out of the page.' ***** 
'Candid, heart warming and also hilarious.' ***** 
'Wonderfully written, laugh out loud funny and poignant by turns.' *****

At My Mother's Knee...And Other Low Joints

Tales from Paul’s mischievous young years

Joshua M Greene

'The soundtrack of [Harrison's] spiritual journey begins with the explosions of battle and ends, fifty-eight years later with the harmonies of eternal peace. And like all good stories, this one starts when the hero was just a child.' 
 
In Here Comes the Sun Joshua Greene sheds new light on the most mysterious of the Beatles, George Harrison, and provides a unique portrait of the man through his music and his spiritual quest. 
 
As Greene looks back at Harrison's early life and the years he spent growing up in an impoverished, post-war Liverpool, he follows the path taken by the quietly rebellious teenage, the experiences and friendships that helped to shape his destiny and, of course, explores Harrison's rollercoaster ride to fame as a member of the legendary Beatles. He also draws on scores of previously unpublished transcripts of recorded conversations, first-hand accounts and fresh anecdotes about Harrison and other musical greats such as Dylan and Presley. 
 
Poignant, insightful, and written with an immediacy that captures the very essence of the 'quiet one', Here Comes the Sun gives us an unprecedented close-up of Harrison's often underrated contribution to the Beatles' legacy, and his spiritual awakening through Indian music, mysticism and meditation.

Here Comes The Sun

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'Funny, forthright and sharp as a knife . . . O'Grady writes just as he speaks.' Daily Mirror 
 
Lilian Maeve Veronica Savage, international sex kitten, was born on the steps of The Legs of Man public house, Lime Street, Liverpool on a policeman's overcoat. Her mother, the lady wrestler Hell Cat Savage, had no such luxuries as gas and air. She just bit down on the policeman's torch and recovered afterwards at the bar with a large pale ale... 
Paul O'Grady shot to fame via his brilliant comic creation, the blonde bombsite Lily Savage. In the first two parts of his bestselling and critically acclaimed autobiography, Paul took us through his childhood in Birkenhead to his first, teetering steps on stage. Now, in Still Standing, for the first time, he brings us the no-holds-barred true story of Lily and the rocky road to stardom... 
Paul pulls no punches in this tale of bar room brawls, drunken escapades and liaisons dangereuses. And that's just backstage at the Panto... Along the way, we stop off at some extremely dodgy pubs and clubs, and meet a collection of exotic characters who made the world a louder, brighter and more hilarious place. From the chaos of the Toxteth riots and the Vauxhall Tavern police raid, to the mystery of who shot Skippy and the great chip pan fire of Victoria Mansions, Paul emerges shaken but not stirred. 
Still Standing will make you laugh and make you cry. Some of the stories might even make your hair curl. But it stands as a glorious tribute to absent friends and to a world which has now all but vanished. 
 
Readers love Still Standing: 
 
'Paul makes you feel like he's chatting to you as a friend. The stories are bold, honest, sometimes hilarious, sometimes very sad.' ***** 
 
'This had my crying, nervous and laughing out loud. I would expect nothing less from the fabulously honest Paul O'Grady.' ***** 
 
'He writes as he speaks, entirely from the heart . . . with his usual warmth, care, concern and honesty, a brilliant read.' *****

Still Standing

The Savage Years

Anthony Bourke

John Rendall

In 2008, a YouTube clip became an internet phenomenon. It showed the emotional reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa to be introduced into his rightful home in the wild. 
 
Anthony 'Ace' Bourke and John Rendall visited London from Australia in 1969 and bought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods. But Christian soon grew from cuddly cub to King of the Kings Road in London, and the only way to avoid him being incarcerated in a zoo was to place him under the expert care of George Adamson in Kenya. Ace and John did not return to see their lion for a year. 
 
A Lion Called Christian tells their touching story, accompanied by stunning photographs. It's a unique and extraordinary tale of its time that resonates again today with a worldwide audience, thanks to the internet age, and is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature.

A Lion Called Christian

Nancy Dell'Olio

Though Nancy Dell'Olio is no stranger to the front pages, her real story has never been told. Now, for the first time she talks about herself, her life and the passions which have inspired her. It's a story which millions think they know already, from the acres of purely speculative newsprint which this fascinating woman has generated. Prepare to be surprised! The real story is far more gripping than the fictional one. 
 
Born and brought up in New York City, Nancy is a true woman of the world. She has the temperament and style of an Italian, yet she lives in London and has adopted an English lifestyle. She is also a proud European, a Catholic, a Jew and a true internationalist. She is also a successful lawyer with a keen interest in politics and world affairs - a woman for all seasons. 
 
Nancy has always emerged serene from scandal that would break most people. She values her sense of humour as her saving grace. Remember that scarlet cat suit entrance to Downing Street and all those classic red carpet moments? Nancy is just as at home in combat jacket and fatigues on the streets of Ramallah as lunching at Claridges. Fashion is fun and life is too serious to be taken seriously. 
 
Nancy's book tells the whole story of her life so far. From her childhood in New York and Puglia in Italy and the accident which nearly killed her, to the successful career in in commercial law and the passions which drive her on, despite all too public crises which would be the end of most of us. This is an inspirational and entertaining glimpse into the life of a fascinating and enigmatic woman.

My Beautiful Game

Christopher Fowler

It’s the late 1970s and 20-something Christopher Fowler is a film freak, obsessively watching lousy films in run-down fleapit cinemas. He longs to be a famous screenwriter and put his dreams on the big screen. And so he heads for Wardour Street, Britain’s equivalent of Hollywood. 
But he’s made a spectacular mistake, arriving just as the nation’s filmmakers are falling to their knees, brought low by the arrival of video and the destruction of the old movie palaces. The only films being made are smutty low budget farces and TV spinoffs and instead of being asked to write another 
'Bullitt’, he's churning out short films advertising boilers and nylon sheets. Somehow, against the odds, he finds success – although in a very different guise to the one he expected. 
 
From the sticky Axminster of the local cinema to the red carpet at Cannes, Film Freak is a grimly hilarious and acutely observed trawl through the arse-end of the British film industry that turns into an ultimately affecting search for friendship and happiness.

Film Freak

Antony Worrall Thompson

Antony Worrall Thompson's passage to culinary stardom has not exactly been smooth. Abandoned by his father, a Shakespearean actor, when he was just three, Antony was sexually abused and maltreated throughout his childhood. 
 
Antony's story very nearly came to an abrupt halt at sixteen when his face was crushed in a horrific rugby accident, which left him badly disfigured and chronically insecure. But pioneering surgery saved the day, enabling him to pursue what was to become the enduring love of his life - cooking. 
 
After much hard graft and some close encounters of the violent gangster kind, AWT's flamboyant style as a restaurateur soon bought him to the attention of cookery's cognoscenti and today Antony is to the culinary establishment what a bull is to a china shop. His no-nonsense style in the kitchen is loathed by a few, but loved by millions. 
 
Stuffed with hugely entertaining anecdotes and lightly sprinkled with AWT's no-holds-barred opinions, RAW is a heartrendingly honest story of triumph over adversity. Along the way we go behind the scenes with the foodie mafia and Antony lifts the lid on a few triple-Michelin-starred scandals. The knives (and the forks!) are very definitely out ...

My Autobiography

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