Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Luke Evans

Growing up in a small village in the Rhymney Valley, Luke's life was shaped by his Jehovah's Witness upbringing, a path he'd eventually navigate to come out to his parents, knowing he risked losing them. In his raw and honest account, he shares his struggles of always feeling different and being bullied as a child, and his brave decision to leave home at just seventeen, searching for a new life and a place where he truly belonged. 
 
Starring first on the West End stages in iconic productions like Miss Saigon, Avenue Q, and Rent, he quickly captivated the hearts of audiences and caught the eye of Hollywood's elite, going on to secure roles in blockbuster films like The Hobbit, Beauty and the Beast, the Fast and Furious franchise, and Nine Perfect Strangers TV series. 
 
In this intimate memoir, Luke takes us behind the scenes of his career on the stage and screen. He writes beautifully of the relationship he now has with his family and the respect they all have for one another on their different paths. Luke's story is a powerful tale of resilience, courage, and the pursuit of finding a sense of belonging and identity.

Boy From the Valleys

My unexpected journey

Greg James

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
Brilliantly funny and life-affirming stories of growing up from much-loved Radio 1 presenter and bestselling children's author, Greg James. 
 
When Greg James was ten years old, his nylon shell suit-clad idols the Chuckle Brothers ('to me, to you') signed an autograph (from them, to him) with the message 'All the best for the future.’ It was a weirdly formal message for a kid. Ten-year-old Greg had no idea what the future held, no clue what was in store for him as he carried on through life. How could he? No one really knows what's coming. 
 
We all have big dreams and small ones, ideas about how we want our lives to pan out: when you'll get married, where you'll live, how many children you want, what you want to be when you grow up. We race through the milestones, desperate to unlock life's next level and before you know it, you’re a ‘grown up'. That’s all well and good but have you remembered to have fun along the way? 
 
Whether it's entertaining the nation with his hugely popular BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, writing big funny adventures for kids with his bestselling children's books, finding the joy in cricket and F1 in his podcasts Tailenders and The Fast and the Curious, or posting stupid videos of his adorable but quite thick dog Barney, Greg’s focus is to put a smile on people's faces because, let's face it, having fun is something we all forget to prioritise sometimes. 
 
In All the Best for the Future, Greg looks at how he thought his life would go and shares the things that wind him up, make him sad, make him laugh and the little passions and interests that he relies on to get him through the day - whether it was a good one or a bad one. He tells us who he is, who he thought he'd be and who he still thinks he could be. Most of all though, his message for everyone is not to let go of that inner child as he navigates how to grow up without growing old. It’s possible to be fully functioning adults, with bills to pay and a dog to look after, and still find time to play with a train set...

All the Best for the Future

Growing Up Without Growing Old

Kevin Rowland

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
A searingly honest memoir from Dexys’ iconic frontman, one of the great mavericks and creative geniuses of British music. 
 
At home, the prayerful eight-year-old altar boy was planning to attend college to train to be a priest. Elsewhere, he was thieving, lying, swearing, fighting and rarely out of trouble. 
 
In this astonishing memoir, Kevin takes us from the juvenile courts of his troubled teenage years to the early days of the New Romantic scene in the late ’70s. An unwavering passion for music and highly tuned sense of fashion and style ignited an unstoppable drive within him, compelling him down a path that led to his huge chart successes with Dexys Midnight Runners in the early 1980s. However, despite being celebrated as a creative genius, inner turmoil was never far away, and a terrifying series of self-sabotaging events were to follow – including a serious cocaine addiction – leaving him in the wilderness in the 1990s, bankrupt, living in a bedsit, on the dole. 
 
Always resilient in the face of adversity, after a massive upheaval Kevin found his way back. He charts his return journey, from shocking audiences with his pioneering embrace of gender fluidity with My Beauty, right through to Dexys’ triumphant appearance at Glastonbury in 2024. 
 
Vividly detailed, and with a truly rare degree of self-insight, this is Kevin's own, deeply personal account of an extraordinary life, raw and unvarnished. A remarkable memoir, as compelling and original as you would expect from one of the pioneering icons of music history.

Bless Me Father

A life story

Chris Harris

'What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.' 
 
Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it 'unhinged geekery', but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenaline fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity. 
 
And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car. 
 
And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his lifelong obsession with the automobile - along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock. 
 
From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio. 
 
Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris.

Variable Valve Timings

Memoirs of a car tragic

Matt Rife

both the hottest and most controversial comedian in America. Now, in his new book, Matt gives his legions of fans and haters plenty to talk about, with hilarious and dangerously revealing stories about his insane rise to stardom—from the trashy backroads of Ohio to the bedrooms of MILFs in LA to sold-out stadiums around the world. 
 
Matt Rife is well aware that he’s both the most loved and the most controversial comic in America today. And honestly, he thinks that’s your problem. 
 
In his very first book, Matt reveals without apology everything that led him to becoming comedy’s biggest lightning rod before he reached thirty, in a story full of bold and hysterical takes on everything from Justin Bieber tramp stamps and rap battles with ex-cons to Matt’s battles with depression and his many brushes with failure before finally hitting it big. 
 
Born in trashy backwoods Ohio, Matt was saved by his foul-mouthed but loving grandpa Steve and a passion for standup. He started hitting comedy clubs before he could even drink, cutting his teeth in front of mostly Black crowds who dared him to succeed. Matt honed a brand of razor-sharp, brutally honest standup that took no prisoners—and took him to the most famous stages of Atlanta and LA before he graduated high school. Along the way, he broke the hearts of MILFs everywhere, finally hit puberty at the ripe age of twenty-two, never met a grudge he wouldn’t keep—and never, ever backed down. 
 
Full of Matt at his most unfiltered best opening up about his life for the very first time, this book will give Matt’s millions of fans everything they want and more—and might even get his insecure enemies to change their minds. Your Mom’s Gonna Love Me is one part memoir, one part comedy special, one part crazy first date. Just you and Matt between the covers. What could be better?

Your Mom’s Gonna Love Me

Jimmy Tarbuck

In October 1963, Jimmy Tarbuck made his TV debut on Sunday Night at the Palladium, The young comedian stepped out on stage and brought the house down. Two years later, he was hosting the show. 
 
As a football-mad youngster, Jimmy's dream had been to play professionally for his beloved Liverpool FC. Meanwhile, his childhood friends John Lennon and Cilla Black shot to fame as chart-topping sensations of the Merseybeat phenomenon. But it was a gift for making people laugh that was to propel him to stardom. 
 
Hosting the biggest show on British TV, he found himself on telly every week introducing superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Rudolf Nureyev. Then he went to America and there he was on stage with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, chatting to Elvis in Vegas and chinwagging with Sinatra in Miami. This was a golden age for British entertainers, and he takes us back to the camaraderie of those days, remembering his old muckers Eric and Ernie, Tommy Cooper and Kenny Lynch, laughing together as they conquered the world. 
 
As his incredible story shows, Jimmy has gone through life seeing the funny side of everything and, even through tough times, he knows that laughter is always the best medicine. Read his autobiography for a big, joyful dose it.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

My autobiography

Petula Clark

‘At the start of the war, I had been an anonymous six-year-old girl who loved playing in the mountain streams of Wales. By the end of it, I had become famous. And that fame never really stopped.’ 
 
Petula Clark has had a life, and career, like nobody else. She sang to wartime troops as a child star, became a leading British singer in the 1950s, evolved into a European musical icon and then conquered America with a string of hit records, beginning with ‘Downtown’. This international superstar of music, stage and screen has illuminated both major Hollywood movies and stage musicals. 
 
Along the way, Petula has sung to US presidents, dined with Frank Sinatra and watched him pull out a gun, danced through fields with Fred Astaire, politely rebuffed Elvis Presley’s advances in Vegas and was one of thirteen maids of honour at Liza Minnelli and David Gest’s wedding… all dressed in black. 
 
Yet, beyond the spotlight, Petula’s life has had its shadows. In this candid memoir, she speaks with moving honesty about a complicated childhood, a sometimes turbulent adolescence and a family life that wasn’t always as perfect as it appeared. She reveals how she mastered the art of pretending things were fine, even when they were not. 
 
Why did John Lennon, at his legendary bed-in for peace with Yoko, ask ‘Is that you, Petula?’ The answer is just one of the many extraordinary stories in this honest, intimate and unforgettable autobiography. This is Petula Clark, a resilient, remarkable and utterly unique figure in popular culture, telling you her story, in her own words.

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