Neil MacGregor was Director of the National Gallery, London from 1987 to 2002 and of the British Museum from 2002 to 2015, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin from 2015 to 2018. His previous books include A History of the World in 100 Objects, Shakespeare's Restless World and Germany: Memories of a Nation, all available in Penguin and now between them translated into more than a dozen languages. In 2010, he was made a member of the Order of Merit, the UK's highest civil honour. In 2015 he was awarded the Goethe Medal and the German National Prize. In 2018 the radio series Living with the Gods received the Sandford Saint Martin Award for Religious Broadcasting.

Neil MacGregor

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Cliff Goodwin

Richard Harris was never an easy person to get along with. He was a difficult schoolboy (and was later disowned by his Limerick teachers), then he went to work in the family flour and milling business - where he organised a strike against his father. 
 
It was as a gifted and compelling actor that Richard Harris dominated stage and screen for more than four decades. He was nominated for an Oscar twice: for his earthy portrayal of a rugby player in This Sporting Life and as a dominant and bullish Irish farmer in The Field. More recently he delivered gripping screen performances in Gladiator and two Harry Potter films. 
 
But it was his violent, drunken, womanising private life that fed the public myth and made Harris, one of a new breed of rogue male actors, an international celebrity. Married and divorced twice, with three sons - two actors, one a film director - he claimed the only time he had been miscast was as a husband. His lovers included legends such as Merle Oberon, Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner and Vanessa Redgrave.

Behaving Badly: Richard Harris

Jody Tressider

Hugh Grant is the quintessential English movie star. He is also a man of opposites; his easy charm belies a malicious wit and as heart throb star of Four Weddings and a Funeral he shocked the world when police found him enjoying the services of a Sunset Boulevard prostitute. 
 
Jody Tresidder, who has written this first, hugely revealing biography of Britain's most famous film star, was a teenage love of Hugh Grant's. She has uncovered all facets of the man - his boyish appeal, his glamorous relationship with Liz Hurley and the darker side that he can longer conceal.

Hugh Grant: The Unauthorised Biography

John Collis

The United Kingdom had never seen anything like it, as two rock'n'roll legends rampaged around the country on Britain's first-ever rock tour. Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran lived the rock'n'roll lifestyle to the full, bringing to an end the monochrome 1950s and ushering in the swinging 60s. 
 
John Collis has traced the story of the UK tour that was a defining moment in British popular culture to its tragic climax with the death of Eddie Cochran. He looks back on the contrasting backgrounds of the two stars, follows the tale onwards to Gene Vincent's death from alcohol and drug abuse, and examines the lasting legacy of their music.

Gene Vincent & Eddie Cochran

Tony Curtis

The Lives Less Ordinary series brings you the most exciting, adventurous and entertaining true-life writing that is out there, for men who are time-poor but want the best. Lives Less Ordinary drops you into extreme first-hand accounts of human experience, whether that's the adrenaline-pumping heights of professional sport, the brutality of the modern battlefield, the casual violence of the criminal world, the mind-blowing frontiers of science, or the excesses of rock 'n' roll, high finance and Hollywood. Lives Less Ordinary also brings you some of the finest comic voices around, on every subject from toilet etiquette to Paul Gascoigne. 
 
'"I first saw her at Universal just walking down the street. She was breathtakingly voluptuous in a see-through blouse that revealed her bra ... I said to this beautiful girl, "My name is Tony." "My name is Marilyn," she said.' 
 
Tony Curtis, one of the great Hollywood heartthrobs, was friends with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and James Dean. He romanced a string of screen sirens including Janet Leigh, Natalie Wood, and of course, Marilyn Monroe. Here, Curtis shares his stories of some of those legendary seductions. 
 
This digital bite has been extracted from Tony Curtis's autobiography American Prince.

How to Seduce Marilyn Monroe

Lives Less Ordinary

Dave Thompson

Dave Thompson, author of Virgin's acclaimed Red Hot Chili Peppers biography, takes a new and very detailed look at the creation of one of the world's most influential bands. After all the streets of London had been covered in 'Clapton Is God' tributes, the three top rock instrumentalists of their time, all stars in their own right, came together to form Cream. Cream went on to become the first band to break open 
the lucrative US market by dint of their live shows alone. 
Updated to include details of their recent tour, this definitive account goes on the road with them then and now, day by relentlessly hedonistic day.

Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm

Billy Bob Thornton

Kinky Friedman

There is – and could only ever be – one Billy Bob Thornton: actor, musician, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and accidental Hollywood badass. In The Billy Bob Tapes, he spins colourful tales of his dirt-poor Southern upbringing, his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (fear of komodo dragons and antiques), his life, his loves (including his marriage to fellow Oscar winner Angelina Jolie), and, of course, his movie career. 
 
The Billy Bob Tapes is full of incredible stories and righteous philosophical rants, told with the help of his close friend, legendary country music star and bestselling author, Kinky Friedman. Put these two iconoclasts together and you get a story that’s not just a celebrity memoir, but a unique, hilarious and insightful pop culture manifesto.

The Billy Bob Tapes

A Cave Full of Ghosts

Keith Topping

Leaving behind his life in Sunnydale and his relationship with Buffy Sunners, Angel atones for his sins by fighting for humanity in the dark seedy underworld of the superficially glamorous city of L.A. Angel Investigations has moved from the Hyperion Hotel to running Wolfram &amp; Hart, but has their conviction to be champions survived the upheaval? 
In his comprehensive unofficial guide to Season Five of Angel's world, Keith Topping, bestselling author of Slayer, the unofficial guide to Buffy, looks at each episode in turn, considering the links and cross-references between Angel and Buffy, draws attention to logic flaws, points out numerous pop-culture references and discusses recurrent themes and coverage of Angel on the Internet. 
This essential guide to the final season of the popular show explores the world of Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne and Spike as they fight their own personal demons and the loneliness of the Big City in their search for redemption.

Showing results for: ‘Neil MacGregor’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter