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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Rita Gilligan

Meet Rita Gilligan, Hard Rock Cafe’s original ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ waitress and international cultural ambassador and MBE. It was 1971 when Hard Rock first opened its doors in London, and Rita was there with her spunky, chatty, and absolutely lovable personality. Over the forty-five years she served at Hard Rock, Rita has collected quite some stories to tell, including her relationship with rock ‘n’ roll celebrities, Hard Rock’s history, and her own personal life struggles. In this book Rita tells her story from being a shy Catholic schoolgirl in Galway to becoming the best known waitress and later ambassador of one of history's most iconic American style restaurants. She also narrates how she met Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many other famous celebrities during her time at the Hard Rock. Written with candid humour and disarming honesty, Rita serves up a brilliantly crafted story about how the Hard Rock, like herself, defied all the odds to become a global phenomenon.

The Rock 'N’ Roll Waitress at the Hard Rock Cafe

David Benjamin

Through the telling of his own madcap childhood, David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of young boys at play.  Whether he's stalking frogs though the swamps of Tomah, Wisconsin, playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favourite cousins, or sneaking into the cinema to watch Saturday-afternoon Westerns, David Benjamin is the kind of kid who would have eagerly fallen in with Tom Sawyer. In relating his adventures - including one truly sorry incident with Snappy, the snapping turtle, and a run-in with a particularly fiendish squirrel - David Benjamin is by turns hysterically funny, movingly sincere, caustic, aggrieved and intrepid.  Traversing the nooks and crannies of kidhood from playing fields to swimming holes, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked captures a time and a place in twentieth-century life and magically recalls the myriad scrapes and adventures and wanderlust that once made childhood such an exhilarating enterprise.

The Life And Times Of The Last Kid Picked

Patrick Dillon

Random House presents the audiobook edition of A Moment of Grace by Patrick Dillon, read by David Rintoul. 
 
How do you learn to live in the wake of death? 
 
Patrick Dillon and Nicola Thorold were together for twenty-eight years. Patrick was an award-winning architect and writer and Nicola a leading figure in theatre, awarded an OBE for her contribution to the arts at London’s Roundhouse. Their two children were almost grown-up. Life was good. 
 
And then, in May 2015, Nicola was diagnosed with leukaemia. After several rounds of treatment, a bone marrow transplant and many waves of recovery and decline, she died thirteen months after her diagnosis. Six months later, at Christmas, Patrick started to write. 
 
A Moment of Grace is the searing, tender account of Patrick’s life with Nicola and her illness, and his life after her loss. But it is more than a story of illness and unbearable grief: it is a book of memory, of home, of family. It is a tale of the transfiguring power of love. Heartbreaking, life-affirming and truly unforgettable, A Moment of Grace is one man’s journey to find life after his wife’s death.

A Moment of Grace

Jason Kersten

Felix Dennis, notorious multimillionaire publisher, first started writing poetry after a life-threatening illness. Over the last decade he has produced a string of successful poetry books, and has undertaken several high profile and successful  poetry reading tours, where his expressive, lively readings have gone down a storm. Advertising his poetry evenings with the irresistible copyline: 'Did I mention the free wine?' he has entertained packed houses, through England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland - and his fans adore him.  In 2010, journalist Jason Kersten accompanied Dennis as he undertook his most ambitious tour yet - a 21-city tour over three months. His description of being on the road with Dennis and his entourage, complete with a double-decker bus and a helicopter, makes highly engaging reading. More reminiscent perhaps of being on tour with a rock band than a poet, here is the behind-the-scenes story that will delight Felix Dennis's many fans and reveal a world of madness and mayhem, accompanied by the muse.

Did I Mention the Free Wine? Madness, Mayhem & The Muse

On tour with Felix Dennis

Caitlin Moran

It's a good time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. But a few nagging questions remain... 
 
Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should we use Botox? Do men secretly hate us? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby? 
 
Part memoir, part protest, Caitlin answers the questions that every modern woman is asking.

How To Be a Woman Quick Reads 2021

Patricia Williams

That’s how things go in the ‘hood: It’s a never ending cycle of trouble, and once it grabs you, it won’t let go. 
 
Patricia started life on the lowest rung of society: poor, black, and female. With an alcoholic for a mother and four siblings, she was raised on a steady diet of welfare, food stamps and cigarette smoke. By the age of 15 she had two children, and by the age of 16 she was dealing drugs to support her young family. Growing up in a family that had been stuck in the ghetto for generations, it seemed impossible Patricia would ever escape. 
 
But when she was shot be a rival drug dealer in front her own children, Patricia made the life-changing decision to turn it all around. With a combination of grit, stubbornness, anger and love – and the kindness of others – she fought to break the cycle of poverty for the next generation. Now a stand-up comedian performing as Ms. Pat, she lives the maxim that the best healing comes through humour.

Rabbit: A Memoir

Andrew Harvey

Andrew Harvey, an Anglo-Indian novelist and poet, expands on the spiritual transformation that he described in part in Journey in Ladakh. Beginning in 1978 when he first met Meera, the Indian woman who would be his Master, Harvey (who at the time was teaching literature in England and the US), struggled for-- and against-- enlightenment for nine years. With other disciples he followed Meera, who he came to see as Ma, the Divine Mother. In India and then in Germany, under her guidance, he confronted his confused sexuality, his attachment to intellect and reason, his pride and his fears. 
 
Harvey's precise, passionately told story will touch sceptics as well as seekers.

Hidden Journey

A Spiritual Awakening

Denise Van Outen

In this refreshingly candid memoir, Denise speaks openly and sensitively about her rollercoaster career, her struggles in a past high-profile relationship and the betrayal she suffered at the hands of those once closest to her, with the hope that in doing so, she can help empower others to avoid and overcome any similar difficulties they may face. 
 
Denise shot to fame on The Big Breakfast in her early twenties. After a decade grafting through theatre jobs and children's TV shows, she was finally living the dream. However her life soon turned into a nightmare off-screen and behind the headlines as her heart was broken in a very public relationship, whilst her every move was printed in the tabloids thanks to her phone being tapped. After receiving a panning by the critics for her late night TV show aimed at the post-pub crowd, she then auditioned for and accepted an offer to play Roxie Hart in Chicago, which turned out to be a life-changing experience. The role took her to Broadway, where she caught the eye of one Andrew Lloyd Webber, eventually landing a judging role on Any Dream Will Do, which saw her rise back to primetime and the career that she loves, where she has stayed and flourished.

A Bit of Me

From Basildon to Broadway, and back

Esther Rantzen

Be bolder as you grow older, and make sure you float above any challenges that threaten to overwhelm you. 
 
Multi-award-winning broadcaster, founder of Childline and The Silver Line, campaigner, mother, grandmother and joyous trailblazer of our times, Dame Esther Rantzen dazzles in the glory of getting older and ever bolder. 
 
And now in this energising A-Z, she time-travels through her most signi?cant memories, from meeting Princess Diana to creating a national outrage with a mischievous short ?lm about a driving dog, and re?ects with candour and humour on the life lessons she's learned, revealing the hints, hacks and personal philosophies that have been her secrets to surviving almost everything. 
 
We may not all achieve what Dame Esther has, but here we can soak up her wisdom, laugh with her, learn from her, embrace the passing years and march boldly on.

Older and Bolder

My A-Z of surviving almost everything

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