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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Joseph Mitchell

'The master of a journalistic style long vanished - urbane, lucid, courteous... A masterpiece of observation and storytelling' Ian McEwan 
 
Mitchell is the laureate of old New York. The hidden corners of the city and the people who lived there are his subject. He captured the waterfront rooming-houses , nickel-a-drink saloons, all-night restaurants, the 'visionaries, obsessives, imposters, fanatics, lost souls, the end-is-near street preachers, old Gypsy Kings and old Gypsy Queens, and out-and-out freak-show freaks.' Mitchell's trademark curiosity, respect and graveyard humour fuel these magical essays. 
 
Written between 1943 and 1965, Up in the Old Hotel is the complete collection of Joseph Mitchell 's New Yorker journalism and includes McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr Flood, The Bottom of the Harbour and Joe Gould's Secret. 
 
 
'Joseph Mitchell is buried treasure' Salman Rushdie

Up in the Old Hotel

Daisy Hay

*Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize* 
 
In late eighteenth-century London, a group of extraordinary people gathered around a dining table once a week. 
 
The host was Joseph Johnson, publisher and bookseller and he was joined at dinner by a shifting constellation of great minds including William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Henry Fuseli, Anna Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft. 
 
Johnson's years as a maker of books saw profound change in Britain and abroad. In this remarkable portrait of a revolutionary age, Daisy Hay captures a changing nation through the stories of the men and women who wrote it into being, and whose ideas still influence us today. 
 
'Rich in period and personal detail' Guardian 
 
'Hugely engrossing' Sunday Times

Dinner with Joseph Johnson

Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age

Jane Martinson

You May Never See Us Again is the definitive story of David and Frederick Barclay - commonly known as the Barclay brothers. Born poor, these enigmatic twins built one of the biggest fortunes in Britain together and spent six decades at the epicentre of British business, media and politics. Their empire, said to be worth &pound;7bn at its height, included Littlewoods, the Ritz, The Daily Telegraph and the channel island of Brecqhou. 
 
And yet despite their fortune and influence, the Barclays' desire for privacy meant that their story has remained largely unknown - until a very public family dispute pitched Barclay against Barclay in the High Court. 
 
Journalist Jane Martinson unravels the fascinating story of these once inseparable brothers. Through their lives she offers compelling insights into post-war Britain, from the conditions that enabled their way of doing business to thrive through to the tightly enmeshed webs of influence between capitalism, politics and the media that shape Britain today.

You May Never See Us Again

The Barclay Dynasty: A Story of Survival, Secrecy and Succession

David Landes

Rothschilds &bull; Morgans &bull; Fords &bull; Toyoda &bull; Agnellis &bull; Rockefellers &bull; Guggenheims 
 
Dynastic family businesses have everything: extraordinary success, bizarre eccentricity, bitter rivalry &ndash; as well as pots of money and power. Yet almost no one has looked closely enough to see what it is that really makes them tick. 
 
In Dynasties, award-winning author David Landes casts his eye over some of the most powerful family businesses in Europe, Japan and America. On the way, he provides thrilling histories of the characters who have made their mark on the world and passed on a legacy &ndash; sometimes benign and sometimes not &ndash; to their descendants.

Dynasties

Fortune and Misfortune in the World's Great Family Businesses

BBC Radio Comedy

All three series of the award-winning topical panel show from 2025 
 
Andy Zaltzman returns for a triple helping of comic quizzing, as he serves up a satirical smorgasbord of choice news morsels for his esteemed panellists to feast on. Making short work of them are some of the biggest names in British and international comedy and journalism, including Sara Barron, Ria Lina, Nish Kumar, Pierre Novellie, Armando Iannucci, Zing Tsjeng, Ava Santina, Mark Steel, Adam Kay, Geoff Norcott, Susie McCabe and Ian Smith. 
 
Kicking off with a ‘Best of 2024’ compilation episode, revisiting and revelling in the previous year’s funniest moments, the team proceed to tuck into 2025’s most pertinent topics, among them the presidential inauguration, the election of the world’s first American Pope, Donald Trump’s tariff turmoil, the Birmingham bin workers’ strike, Budget talks, the Boriswave and the stripping of both Royal titles and Royal crown jewels. 
 
They also take time to savour some of the year’s smaller stories – including the overdue return of the woolly mammoth, the death of the semi-colon, pop stars popping to the stars, Yorkshire gladiators, telepathic Google searches and chimps drunk on fruit. And as soaring cocoa prices impact Britain’s sweet treats, the panel chew over the big question of the moment: are things better or worse than they used to be? 
 
Production credits 
Written and hosted by Andy Zaltzman 
With additional material by Simon Alcock, Rebecca Bain, Chris Ballard, Daman Bamrah, Samira Banks, Carwyn Blayney, Catherine Brinkworth, Angela Channell, Ruby Clyde, Cody Dahler, Eve Delaney, Tasha Dhanraj, David Duncan, Jain Edwards, Milo Edwards, Alice Fraser, Jade Gebbie, Marty Gleeson, Alexandra Haddow, Miranda Holmes, Ruth Husko, Alex Kealy, Ralph Jones, Sam Lake, Sascha LO, Cameron Loxdale, Laura Major, Christian Manley, Stuart McPherson, Meryl O'Rourke, Alfife Packham, Ben Pope, Christina Riggs, Mike Shephard, Peter Tellouche and John Tothill 
 
Produced by Sam Holmes, Rajiv Karia and Gwyn Rhys Davies 
Executive Producers: James Robinson, Pete Strauss and Richard Morris 
Production Co-ordinators: Jodie Charman, Beanna Olding, Caroline Barlow and Giulia Lopes Mazzu 
Sound: Sean Kerwin, David Thomas, Mark Willcox 
 
Series 116 featuring: Anushka Asthana, Angela Barnes, Sara Barron, Scott Bennett, Simon Evans, Daniel Finkelstein, Alice Fraser, Ayesha Hazarika, Athena Kugblenu, Nish Kumar, Jay Lafferty, Laura Lexx, Ria Lina, Zoe Lyons, Alex Massie, Andrew Maxwell, Susie McCabe, Val McDermid, Stuart Mitchell, Glenn Moore, Geoff Norcott, Pierre Novellie, Lucy Porter, Hugo Rifkind, Paul Sinha, Ian Smith and Zing Tsjeng 
 
Series 117 featuring: Anushka Asthana, Sara Barron, Alasdair Beckett-King, Ed Byrne, Daliso Chaponda, Jessica Fostekew, Armando Iannucci, Alex Kealy, Athena Kugblenu, Marie Le Conte, Ria Lina, Zoe Lyons, Andrew Maxwell, Glenn Moore, Geoff Norcott, Pierre Novellie, Lucy Porter, Hugo Rifkind, Ava Santina, Ian Smith, Mark Steel, Zing Tsjeng, Felicity Ward and Cindy Yu 
 
Series 118 featuring: Celya AB, Sara Barron, Alasdair Beckett-King, Scott Bennett, Stephen Bush, Daliso Chaponda, Kate Cheka, Neil Delamere, Simon Evans, Ayesha Hazarika, Adam Kay, Coco Khan, Laura Lexx, Ria Lina, Zoe Lyons, Andrew Maxwell, Susie McCabe, Geoff Norcott, Pierre Novellie, Lucy Porter, Hugo Rifkind, Ava Santina, Ash Sarkar, Ahir Shah, Ian Smith, Tiff Stevenson and Cindy Yu 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 3 Jan 2025, 10 Jan-28 February 2025 (Series 116), 18 Apr-6 Jun 2025 (Series 117), 5 Sep-24 Oct 2025 (Series 118) 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The News Quiz 2025: The Complete Series 116, 117 and 118

The Topical BBC Radio 4 Panel Show

Three series of the satirical radio panel show chaired by Sandi Toksvig 
 
Ever since 1977, The News Quiz has been finding the hilarity in the headlines and providing witty commentary on stories big and small. In these 25 episodes from 2009, the inimitable Sandi Toksvig is in the hot seat, presiding over an all-star panel of journalists and comedians. 
 
Bringing their A-game to the show are regulars including Jeremy Hardy, Andy Hamilton, Mark Steel, Francis Wheen, Sue Perkins and Carrie Quinlan, as well as relative newcomers such as Chris Addison, Phill Jupitus, Rory Bremner, Robin Ince and David Mitchell. 
 
Each episode brings a fresh crop of news for the team to get their teeth into, and among the topics under discussion are Barack Obama's first 100 days, MP's expenses, Twitter's shakedown of super-injunctions, North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the Iraq inquiry and the perils of drunken trampolining. Rounding off the proceedings are newsreaders Harriet Cass, Peter Donaldson, Charlotte Green, Corrie Corfield, Neil Sleat, Carolyn Brown and Rory Morrison, with a selection of classic comic cuttings sent in by listeners. 
 
Production credits 
Chaired by Sandi Toksvig 
Chair's script written by Stephen Carlin, Lucy Clarke, Rhodri Crooks, Jon Hunter, Simon Littlefield, Suk Pannu, James Sherwood and Danielle Ward 
 
With additional material by Nathon Caton, Matt Charlton, Steve Day, Gary Delaney, Miriam Elia, Gareth Gwynn, Elliot Howe, James Kettle, Benjamin Partridge, Dale Phillips, Dominic Philpott, Rory Stamp, John-Luke Roberts and Holly Walsh 
 
Produced by Victoria Llloyd, Katie Tyrrell and Ed Morrish 
A BBC Studios Production 
 
Series 67 featuring: Chris Addison, Clive Anderson, Dave Gorman, Andy Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Laurence Howarth, Shappi Khorsandi, Phill Jupitus, Fred MacAulay, David Mitchell, Sue Perkins, Carrie Quinlan, Mark Steel, Danielle Ward, Francis Wheen 
 
Series 68 featuring: Rory Bremner, Andy Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Robin Ince, Phill Jupitus, Josie Long, Fred MacAulay, Sue Perkins, Steve Punt, Carrie Quinlan, Hugo Rifkind, Mark Steel, Danielle Ward, Francis Wheen, Andy Zaltzman 
 
Series 69 featuring: Rory Bremner, Simon Evans, Andy Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Robin Ince, Miles Jupp, Fred MacAulay, David Mitchell, Andy Parsons, Sue Perkins, Carrie Quinlan, Hugo Rifkind, Paul Sinha, Mark Steel, Holly Walsh, Danielle Ward, Francis Wheen 
 
News items read by Harriet Cass, Peter Donaldson, Charlotte Green, Corrie Corfield, Neil Sleat, Carolyn Brown and Rory Morrison 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 9 January-27 February 2009 (Series 67), 1 May-19 June 2009 (Series 68), 25 September-20 November 2009 (Series 69) 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

The News Quiz 2009

Series 67, 68 and 69 of the topical BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show

Bruce Oldfield

Fanny Blake

Born a mixed-race, illegitimate child to an irresponsible, 'care-free' mother and an anonymous Jamaican boxer, Bruce Oldfield's entry into the world was anything but conventional. As his mother was moved from hospital to mental home to supervision by her mother, likewise Bruce moved through several boy's homes before being fostered for twelve years with a woman who became known as 'Mum' and with three other mixed-race children who became his 'brothers' and 'sisters'. 
 
Bruce's 'family' rarely strayed far from living just above the bread line. To make up the finances Bruce's foster mum worked as a seamstress. It was her talent to make fabulous clothes from scraps of material that captured Bruce's imagination. 
 
What began as a hobby and desire to ease the family's financial worries became Bruce's life's work as he rose through the ranks of top designers in London, New York and Paris to become one of the best known and best loved figures in the fashion world. 
 
He created the most beautiful clothes for an amazing range of people - from the Princess of Wales to Dame Edna Everage. 
 
'After thirty years in the business it seems an opportune moment to put down an account of my life, as much to evaluate where I've been as to decide where I'm going.'

Rootless

An Autobiography

Andrew Collins

Fast approaching his fortieth birthday, Andrew is cornered at a family gathering by the nine-year-old son of his brother-in-law's sister. Having seen him as a talking head on TV, the boy asks, 'What are you?' It is a question so frank and simple that Andrew doesn't have an immediate answer to hand. 
 
So, with hilarious self-deprecation, he sets out to retrace how he got to where he is today. Seventeen precarious jobs in seventeen years: from trolley collector at Sainsbury's to high-flying film critic sipping cocktails with Will Smith and Jerry Bruckheimer on a yacht in Cannes. This is Andrew's tale of rubbing shoulders with the world's biggest stars: pissing off Christini Ricci, having his hairstyle mocked by Noel Gallagher, trying not to wake Clive James from his afternoon nap, having his apple pie eaten by Bob Geldof, and somehow stumbling into the next dream job. 
 
Along the way, he's been the world's worst gossip columnist, an almost-hip young gunslinger at the NME, a Radio 1 DJ (enduring a hellish Radio 1 roadshow in a car park in Birmingham), an ITV presenter, EastEnders scriptwriter, ghost writer for a major TV personality and much, much more. It charts a world of hedonism, mundanity, towering egos, shallow idiocy and occasional moments of mind-blowing joy. And, of course, being sent shit in a box.

That's Me in the Corner

Adventures of an ordinary boy in a celebrity world

Mary Portas

* THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * 
 
Young Mary Newton, born into a large Irish family in a small Watford semi, was always getting into trouble. When she wasn’t choking back fits of giggles at Holy Communion or eating Chappie dog food for a bet, she was accidentally setting fire to the local school. Mary was a trouble magnet. And, unlike her brothers, somehow she always got caught… 
 
Britain in the 1970s was a world where R White's lemonade was drunk in secret, curry came in a cardboard box marked Vesta and Beanz meant Heinz. In Mary’s family, money was scarce. Clothes were hand-me-downs, holidays a church day out to Hastings and meals were variations on the potato. But these were also good times which revolved around the force of nature that was Theresa, Mary’s mum. 
 
When tragedy unexpectedly blows this world apart, a new chapter in Mary’s life opens up. She takes to the camp and glamour of Harrods window dressing like a duck to water, and Mary, Queen of Shops is born…

Shop Girl

Colin Chapman

Selling the Family Silver is, moreover, the controversial 'warts and all' story of Britain's privatization programme, past and future. The chairmen, the cheats, the fanfares and the flops - from all sides of the political, social and economic coin, the author examines the contentious demise of nationalization and the real effectiveness of the private giants that have replaced it, finally posing the fundamental question: Has privatization worked?

Selling The Family Silver

Has Privatization Worked?

Niall Ferguson

This second volume of Niall Ferguson&rsquo;s acclaimed, landmark history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty concludes his myth-breaking portrait of one of the most powerful and fascinating families of modern times. With all the depth, clarity and drama with which he traced the Rothschild&rsquo;s ascent, Ferguson shows how their power waned as conflicts from Crimea to the Second World War repeatedly threatened the stability of their worldwide empire, and how their failure to establish themselves successfully in the United States would prove fateful. At once a classic family saga and a major work of economic, social and political history, this is the definitive biography of some of the most powerful financiers of recent times.

The House of Rothschild

The World's Banker 1849-1998

Robin Campbell

Ali Campbell

Born and raised in a council house on Birmingham's notorious Balsall Heath under the watchful eye of their staunchly socialist, folk singer father, Robin and Ali Campbell were to become members of the most successful reggae band in the world, a career that has spanned four decades. 
 
But this is not the autobiography of a pop band legend, but rather the story of two working class brothers crashing and burning and fighting back against the odds. It is the story of growing up in the 1960s to the sounds of Motown and ska, folk music and skiffle and radical politics and - most importantly - the new and infectious sound of reggae that was to capture the ears of these two teenage kids from the Midlands. 
 
Instilled by their father from an early age to always do things their own way, the brothers - in between dead end jobs and the dole office - put together a band that would show Balsall Heath what reggae was all about . Mismanagement, drink, drugs, divorce, paranoia and jail terms would dog the band and threaten to destroy it all - including the brother's relationship and yet they come to amass record sales in excess of 50 million, with nearly 50 hit singles to their credit - from 'Red Red Wine' and 'Don't Break My Heart' to 'Homely Girl' and 'I Got You Babe'.

Blood And Fire

Ian Gregg

When Ian Gregg was just a boy he joined his father at work selling pies from his van to miners’ wives around Newcastle. Now retired, he can look back on a business that began as a husband-and-wife team in the 1930s, and survived a world war and two major recessions to become our favourite bakery, beloved by everyone from children to office workers to soldiers overseas. 
 
Ian Gregg led the family firm as it grew, employing generations of families from around Newcastle and then becoming a public company with bakeries in Scotland and across the North, and now with shops on every high street. This is a story of extraordinary success, but it is also a triumphant tale of how doing right by your people makes for great business. Bucking every trend, Greggs have always put their customers, employees and local communities before quick profits for directors and shareholders. Their astounding record of charitable works includes hardship grants, an environment fund, sponsorship of the North East Children’s Cancer run and over £1 million raised annually for Children in Need. 
 
Ian Gregg will donate all of his royalties and Greggs plc will donate all its profits from the sale of this book to the Greggs Foundation to help fund more Breakfast Clubs for children.

Bread: The Story of Greggs

Frank McDonald

Kathy Sheridan

In the past fifteen years, Ireland has gone from being one of the poorest countries in the EU to one of the richest in the world. Of all the factors in this extraordinary transformation, none has been more prominent than the astonishing boom in construction. In The Builders, Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan tell the stories of these men and of the changes - physical and psychological - they have brought about. The story of Ireland's property developers has been the great untold story of the boom - until now.

The Builders

How a Small Group of Property Developers Fuelled the Building Boom and Transformed Ireland

Alan Barker

In the early hours of 30 April 2003, twelve armed and uniformed officers accompanied by four plain-clothes detectives burst into Alan Barker's house. They stayed for hours, turning over rooms, seizing documents, impounding computers, files and anything else that interested them. The family were treated as terrorist suspects, the operation resembling so many others in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. But Alan Barker was and is no terrorist. In fact, he has spent his adult life fighting terrorism on the streets of his native province. 
 
 Barker belonged to the Special Branch, the RUC's elite unit dedicated to fighting the IRA, the INLA and loyalist terrorists. He gives a gripping insider's account of life on the frontline and demonstrates how the RUC used sophisticated listening devices and informants, including the notorious supergrass Raymond Gilmour, in their fight to gain the upper hand. 
 
 After nearly 30 years of loyal service, Barker retired angry and disillusioned about what he views as the government's capitulation to the terrorists. This is the book that Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office don't want you to read. It is a story of courage under fire, guile, Le Carré-esque plots and treachery.

Shadows

Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch

Bob Humphrys

Bob Humphrys is one of the most famous names in sports journalism. As sports correspondent of BBC Wales's flagship news programme Wales Today, he was at the centre of every major story of the past twenty turbulent years. He was there right at the heart of Ruddockgate, there on the players' balcony when Glamorgan celebrated winning a county championship, there in the Mondeo driving Joe Calzaghe to his first world title fight. In short, he was where every sports fan would love to be - as close to the action as you can get without scoring a try, taking a corner or hitting a four. 
 
Despite a life-long love affair with sport, Bob wasn't always a sports journalist. Early in his career, his brother John - the Rottweiler of Radio 4's Today programme - took him aside and told him, 'The one thing you want to avoid is covering sport - that is not proper journalism.' But the man who always read his newspaper from back to front found it hard to resist sport's magnetic pull. After his successful stints as a feature writer and current affairs reporter - encountering everyone from Argentinian presidents to Danish drug dealers and Sir Anthony Hopkins - the BBC's Wales Today came calling, and Bob quickly discovered the politics in current affairs paled into insignificance compared to the politics in sport. In Bob's first week in the job, Welsh rugby imploded with a rebel tour to South Africa - and for the next twenty years Welsh sport would lurch from triumph to disaster and back again, with Bob right there in the middle, loving every moment. 
 
Tragically, Bob Humphrys died in August 2008. But he left a magnificent epitaph: this book. In Not a Proper Journalist, the former face of Welsh sport reveals for the first time the story behind the stories. The friendships, the feuds, the glory and the heartbreak, straight from the horse's mouth. It's revealing, exhilarating, provocative and very funny - and if that's not proper journalism, brother John can eat his hat...

Not a Proper Journalist

Ruth Dudley Edwards

They were 'Cudlipp' and 'Mr King' when they met in 1935. At 21, gregarious, extrovert and irreverent Hugh Cudlipp had many years of journalistic experience: at 34, shy, introspective and solemn Cecil Harmsworth King, haunted by the ghost of Uncle Alfred, Lord Northcliffe, the great press magnate, and bitter towards Uncle Harold, Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail, was fighting his way up in the family business. 
 
Opposites in most respects, they were complementary in talents and had in common a deep concern for the underdog. Cudlipp, the journalistic genius, and King, the formidable intellect, were to become, in Cudlipp's words, 'the Barnum and Bailey' of Fleet Street. Together, on the foundation of the populist Daily Mirror, they created the biggest publishing empire in the world. 
 
Yet their relationship foundered sensationally in 1968, when - as King tried to topple the Prime Minister - Cudlipp toppled King. Through the story of two extraordinary men, Ruth Dudley Edwards gives us a riveting portrait of Fleet Street in its heyday.

Newspapermen

Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street

Francis Bourgeois

The adventure filled memoir from the world's most beloved trainspotter, TikTok sensation Francis Bourgeois. 
 
'Francis is one of the kindest, most genuine people I've met in a long time. His passion and unadulterated happiness is inspiring. I can't wait for more magical adventures with him.' - Joe Jonas 
 
'A National Treasure Of The TikTok Age.' - Grazia 
 
'Thrashing builds and builds. I look down and pull up my sleeve: I've got goosebumps, making all the hairs on my arm stand on end. I'm absolutely buzzing.' 
 
From sleeping in a car to get a good shot of 73962 Dick Mabbutt to trainspotting with Niall Horan, Francis Bourgeois has been on one hell of a ride over the past year. Bringing joy to millions, his epic journeys have highlighted the importance of connecting with your passions. 
 
In The Trainspotter's Notebook, Francis shares his greatest trainspotting adventures and takes you with him across the fields and footbridges of Britain, passing through historic terminals and backwater stations in pursuit of tones, thrash and locomotive perfection. Told in his inimitable style, these hilarious and heart-warming tales take you behind the scenes of his most popular videos, and celebrate the places and people of the railway. 
 
Are you ready to depart? 
 
'Oh for goodness sake, I'm on the wrong platform!'

The Trainspotter's Notebook

Augustine Sedgewick

Coffee is one of the most valuable commodities in the history of the global economy and the world's most popular drug. The very word 'coffee' is one of the most widespread on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's brilliant new history tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 400-year transformation into an everyday necessity. 
 
The story is one that few coffee drinkers know. It centres on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of nineteenth-century Manchester, founded one of the world's great coffee dynasties. In the process, Hill helped to turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history, a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality and violence. 
 
The book follows coffee from the Hill family plantations into the supermarkets, kitchens and work places of the United States, and finally into today's omnipresent cafés. Sedgewick reveals the unexpected consequences of the rise of coffee, which reshaped large areas of the tropics, transformed understandings of energy, and ultimately made us dependent on a drug served in a cup.

Coffeeland

A History

Dana Thomas

In Gods and Kings Dana Thomas, author of Deluxe, tells the story of how John Galliano and Alexander McQueen changed the face of fashion 
 
In the first decade of the 21st century the fashion world was dominated by two different but equally successful and turbulent figures. Within twelve months, Alexander McQueen had committed suicide, and John Galliano had professionally imploded. Who was to blame? And how was fashion changed by their rise and fall? Spanning the 80s, 90s and noughties, Gods and Kings tells the story of these two charismatic figures and times of great change in the world of fashion, from London's raucous art and club scene to the old-world glamour of Parisian couture, and reveals the machinations of this notoriously secretive industry.

Gods and Kings

The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano

Emily P Webber

The story of the last generation of British miners: fathers and sons, brothers and comrades, big hitters and broken men, strikers and scabs. 
 
'A compelling, unflinching account…full of tales of tragedy, gallows humour and camaraderie’ The Times 
 
What happened to Britain's last generation of miners? Combining new personal interviews with extensive archival research, Emily P. Webber illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain. 
 
By situating the miners’ strike of 1984–85 in a longer history of the coalfields, we can understand why miners and their families fought so hard against pit closures, and what happened after the pit wheels stopped turning. Vivid, evocative and richly alive with minute detail, Mining Men explores what the mining industry once meant to its workers and their communities, and what Britain lost when it was gone. 
 
'Fascinating... An engaging history of post-war British mining' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Absorbing and enjoyable...an illuminating peek into the lives of those who risked everything to warm our hearths' The Herald

Mining Men

Britain’s Last Kings of the Coalface

Margaret Forster

In 1831 John Dodgson Carr, son of a Quaker grocer, set off to walk from his home in Kendal to Carlisle, determined to launch a great enterprise. Within 15 years, Carr's of Carlisle had become one of the largest baking businesses in the world -and is a by-word for biscuits to this day. Following his trail to Carlisle (where she herself was born and grew up), Margaret Forster brings 19th-century daily life into vivid focus and charts the rise and rise of a middle-class family like the Carrs, ambitious, innovative yet sternly religious. This is history as it was lived by the men and women both above and below stairs - from the shop floor to the comfortable bourgeois homes of the paternalistic Carrs. We see the conflict between religion and profit, the family feuds and the changing face of a city through this compelling historical narrative, told with Margaret Forster's characteristic blend of scholarship, readability and marvellous attention to the texture of everyday life.

Rich Desserts and Captain's Thin

A Family and Their Times 1831-1931

Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and guests poke fun at the past in this panel show with a yesteryear twist 
 
Originally broadcast on Radio 4 in 2003-4, We&rsquo;ve Been Here Before is the topical, satirical, historical panel game that aims to show beyond all doubt that there&rsquo;s nothing new in the news. Hosted by award-winning comedian, broadcaster and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Clive Anderson, it takes a wry, witty look at long-gone days through a present-day lens, as the panellists battle it out to discover who&rsquo;s got the best memory for detail when it comes to raking up the past. 
 
Gyles Brandreth, Jimmy Carr, Chris Addison, Mark Steel, Natalie Haynes, Richard Herring, Robin Ince and Steve Punt are among the stellar guests striving to identify news clips from years gone by, and to spot the parallels with contemporary events. From reality TV, BBC-bashing and striking unions to celebrity American presidential hopefuls, European referendums and Prime Ministers under pressure, they find that the stories they sift through sound strangely familiar. 
 
Still funny and relevant over 20 years after it first aired, this entertaining series is the ultimate proof that what goes around comes around. It&rsquo;s a blast from the past with a modern perspective &ndash; and any similarity to current events is entirely the idea... 
 
Production credits 
Presented by Clive Anderson 
Reader: Lewis MacLeod 
Produced by Adam Bromley (Series 1) and Ed Morrish (Series 2) 
 
Series 1 featuring: Gyles Brandreth, Jimmy Carr, John O'Farrell, David Quantick, Jon Holmes, Simon Brett, Lewis Shaffer, Steve Punt, Robin Ince, Maureen Lipman, Simon Brett 
 
Series 2 featuring: Gyles Brandreth, John O'Farrell, Arthur Smith, Arabella Weir, Natalie Haynes, Richard Herring, Mark Steel, David Quantick, Chris Addison, Nick Revell, Helen Atkinson-Wood 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 1-29 August 2003 (Series 1), 11 June-2 July 2004 (Series 2) 
 
&copy; 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

We’ve Been Here Before: The Complete Series 1 and 2

The BBC Radio Comedy Panel Show

Miriam O'Callaghan

I started writing this book as an exclusively work memoir but the work and the personal kept overlapping. I don’t know if that’s because I’m a woman or a mother or both, or none of those reasons. I just know that for my story to be authentic and truthful, I couldn’t simply focus on the work side of my life. 
Miriam O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's best-known broadcasters, covering every election, referendum, major controversy and important public event for TV, and hosting an award-winning radio show. Combining career success, high-octane glamour and being a mother-of-eight makes her a truly unique figure in Irish public life. 
In her absorbing memoir, Miriam shares touching stories from her personal life – from the life-changing impact of losing her beloved sister and father in a matter of months, and the end of her first marriage that same year, to the joys and challenges of bringing eight children into the world and juggling a frenetically busy life (‘give up on perfection’ is her wise advice!). 
Miriam includes fascinating insights into a career that has given her a ringside seat to a changing Ireland. Like attending Bobby Sands’ wake even before she was a journalist, and life coming full circle when she championed John Hume to be declared the greatest figure in Irish history. She describes extraordinary debates, important and heart-breaking conversations with people in the eye of a media storm, and how she goes after and prepares for the big interviews – as well as what happens when things go wrong. Miriam also addresses the recent RTÉ controversies that cast a shadow over its high-profile presenters, not least herself. 
Miriam is an exceptionally honest and personal memoir from one of Ireland’s most esteemed broadcasters

Miriam

Life, Work, Everything

Jeremy Clarkson

These days, you might know him better as a tractor-driving Gentleman Farmer, but Jeremy Clarkson wasn't always a horny-handed son of the soil. 
 
Not at all . . . 
 
Back in the day Jeremy was far more likely to be found gunning around the world in a haze of burnt rubber and petrol fumes. But life as a globe-trotting petrol-head also meant he was forced endure more than his fair share of foolishness, frustration and downright bafflement. And, while Jeremy may not a patient man, you have to ask why anyone should have to consider issues as diverse and perplexing as: 
 
- The downsides of relaxing in a bath of crude oil 
- Why fishing is for people who hate their kids 
- Whether there are noise-cancelling headphones with the power to silence James May 
- Why saving the planet means soggy paper straws and no more children 
- What to do about the rambler who stole his marrow 
 
But as puzzling and exasperating as life on the road often seemed to be, you could always count on Jeremy to set the world to rights with a rare wit and unique understanding. And at full throttle. Just don't expect it to all go smoothly . . .

Can You Make This Thing Go Faster?

Chris Smalls

The outrageous, jaw-dropping true story of the man who took on a corporate giant – and won. 
 
A dedicated and experienced Amazon employee, Chris Smalls had begun to feel frustrated by the inner workings of the retail giant – he kept being passed over for promotion, with little to no explanation. So when his colleagues and friends began falling ill in the Covid pandemic, and with no assurances of safety or even sick leave from the top, he made the only choice left available to him. He staged a walkout with friend Derrick Palmer, eventually finding himself on the picket line without a job. 
 
What began as a demand to keep essential employees safe in a crisis would grow into a movement devoted to achieving dignity and security for the wage worker, triggering a groundswell of organizers at Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Apple – and across the world. We follow Smalls’s years of sacrifice and economic uncertainty as a father of three, from fighting warehouse managerial politics in an effort to make ends meet, to his ascension as the leader of a new generation’s labour movement. 
 
When the Revolution Comes is the riveting inside story of how a young Black man from Hackensack, NJ with little-to-no resources led a scrappy band of Staten Island warehouse workers in an improbable fight against Amazon to create its first Labor Union. An exposé of life lived in the laboratory of capitalism and a terrifying depiction of what it’s like to be working class in America, this book tells a new, empowering story of what is possible when the overworked, underpaid and disempowered join together, forming a movement born in community.

When the Revolution Comes

A Story About Capitalism

Philip Augar

'A brilliantly readable account, based on exceptional access, of the transformation of the old Quaker bank into a hard-charging capitalist adventurer ... both a thriller and a reminder that business is fascinating because all human life is there' John Plender, Financial Times 
 
Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank that Lived a Little describes three decades of boardroom intrigue at one of Britain's biggest financial institutions. In a tale of feuds, grandiose dreams and a struggle for supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents, Philip Augar gives a riveting account of Barclays' journey from an old Quaker bank to a full-throttle capitalist machine. The disagreement between those ambitious for Barclays to join the top table of global banks, and those preferring a smaller domestic role more in keeping with the bank's traditions, cost three chief executives their jobs and continues to divide opinion within Barclays, the City and beyond. 
 
This is an extraordinary corporate thriller, which among much else describes how Barclays came to buy Lehman Brothers for a bargain price in 2008, why it was so keen to avoid taking government funding during the financial crisis, and the price shareholders have paid for a decade of barely controlled ambition. But Augar also shows how Barclays' experiences are a paradigm for Britain's social and economic life over thirty years, which saw the City move from the edge of the economy to its very centre. These decades created unprecedented prosperity for a tiny number, and made the reputations of governments and individuals but then left many of them in tatters. 
 
The leveraged society, the winner-takes-all mentality and our present era of austerity can all be traced to the influence of banks such as Barclays. Augar's book tells this rollercoaster story from the perspective of many of its participants - and also of those affected by the grip they came to have on Britain.

The Bank That Lived a Little

Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market

Tristram Hunt

Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the greatest English potter who ever lived, epitomized the best of his age. From his kilns and workshops in Stoke-on-Trent, he revolutionized the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain by marrying technology with design, manufacturing efficiency and retail flair. He transformed the luxury markets not only of London, Liverpool, Bath and Dublin but of America and the world, and helping to usher in a mass consumer society. Tristram Hunt calls him 'the Steve Jobs of the eighteenth century'. 
 
But Wedgwood was radical in his mind and politics as well as in his designs. He campaigned for free trade and religious toleration, read pioneering papers to the Royal Society and was a member of the celebrated Lunar Society of Birmingham. Most significantly, he created the ceramic 'Emancipation Badge', depicting a slave in chains and inscribed 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?' that became the symbol of the abolitionist movement. 
 
Tristram Hunt's hugely enjoyable new biography, strongly based on Wedgwood's notebooks, letters and the words of his contemporaries, brilliantly captures the energy and originality of Wedgwood and his extraordinary contribution to the transformation of eighteenth-century Britain.

The Radical Potter

Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain

Ruth Reichl

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine undetected when she takes on the much coveted and highly prestigious job of New York Times restaurant critic. 
Reichl knows that to be a good critic she has to be anonymous - but her picture is posted in every four-star, low-star kitchen in town and so she embarks on an extraordinary - and hilarious - undercover game of disguise - keeping even her husband and son in the dark. There is her stint as Molly, a frumpy blonde in an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque resulting in a double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic. Then there is the eccentric, mysterious red head on whom her husband - both disconcertingly and reassuringly - develops a terrible crush. She becomes Brenda the earth mother, Chloe the seductress and even Miriam her own (deceased) mother. 
What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various guises, she finds herself changed not just physically, but also in character revealing how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites.

Garlic And Sapphires

James O'Brien

There's no point having a mind if you're not willing to change it 
 
James O'Brien has built well over a million loyal listeners to his radio show by dissecting the opinions of callers live on air, every day. But winning the argument doesn't necessarily mean you're right. 
 
In this deeply personal book, James turns the mirror on himself to reveal what he has changed his mind about and why, and explore how examining and changing our own views is our new civic duty in a world of outrage, disagreement and echo chambers. He writes candidly about the stiff upper lip attitudes and toxic masculinity that coloured his childhood, and the therapy and personal growth that have led him question his assumptions and explore new perspectives. Laying open his personal views on everything from racial prejudice to emotional vulnerability, from fat-shaming to tattoos, he then delves into the real reasons - often irrational or unconscious - he holds them. 
 
Unflinchingly honest, revealing and funny, How Not to Be Wrong is a tonic for a world more divided than ever and a personal manifesto for a better way of thinking and living. 
 
Because after all, if we can't change our own minds we'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

How Not To Be Wrong

The Art of Changing Your Mind

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