Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Paul Tough

Why character, confidence, and curiosity are more important to your child’s success than academic results. The New York Times bestseller. For all fans of Oliver James or Steve Biddulph’s Raising Boys, Raising Girls, and The Complete Secrets of Happy Children. 
 
 
In a world where academic success can seem all-important in deciding our children’s success in adult life, Paul Tough sees things very differently. 
 
Instead of fixating on grades and exams, he argues that we, as parents, should be paying more attention to our children’s characters. 
 
Inner resilience, a sense of curiosity, the hidden power of confidence - these are the most important things we can teach our children, because it is these qualities that will enable them to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. 
 
In this personal, thought-provoking and timely book, Paul Tough offers a clarion call to parents who are seeking to unlock their child’s true potential – and ensure they really succeed.

How Children Succeed

Simon Carr

When Simon Carr's wife, Susie, tragically loses her battle with cancer, Simon is left to raise his five-year-old son, Alexander, on his own. Soon after, his eleven-year-old son from a previous marriage, Hugo, comes to live with them too. All too quickly, plumped-up cushions, crisp beds and a drifting scent of rosemary from the kitchen are replaced with a floor piled high with video-games, Lego® and comics. While visiting mothers deem his parenting 'semi-feral', Simon dryly retorts that his methods are simply 'free-range'.In this new all-male partnership, Simon faces the challenges of parenthood unaided, as father and sons alike learn to become a family again. 
 
Carr's emotionally honest, compellingly anarchic and sharply comic story of a single parent's struggle is at once heartbreaking and wonderfully life-affirming.

The Boys Are Back

A J Rochester

'I love food.  Even worse, I love junk food.  If lard could be double deep-fried I would eat it.  If I could deep-fry headache pills I would.  So it's no wonder I'm now the size of a small yet economically viable continent...'When A. J. Rochester is selected to feature in a television series on obesity, she is at first appalled and then resolved.  At 109 kilos (17 stone), she knows she needs to lose weight - not because she yearns to become a twiglet but so she can keep up with her little boy and turn her life around at last.  But after years of fighting a losing battle with the flab, A. J. knows she needs a miracle.  So she decides to ditch the 'quick-fix' diets and the faddy exercise equipment and try a new approach - one that involves discovering her own inner strengths.  It may not be easy - but it pays off. Confessions of a Reformed Dieter charts the highs, lows and plateaus of A. J.'s incredible journey, from overcoming an early setback - waking up in hospital with a broken leg after a drunken binge - to the triumph of shedding the first, and last, kilo.

Confessions of a Reformed Dieter

Lisa Gee

When Lisa Gee's six-year-old daughter, Dora, goes to an open audition for the West End production of The Sound of Music, it's just a fun way to occupy some time in the Easter holidays. But when Dora unexpectedly lands the role, Lisa soon learns that Dora's brush with fame has less to do with paparazzi and lucrative paydays and more to do with endless rehearsals and outsize egos. 
 
Part fairy tale, part cautionary tale, this is the hilarious, engaging account of one child's step into the limelight. From the initial try-out with over a thousand Von Trapp hopefuls to performing on the London stage with Connie Fisher and an encounter with Julie Andrews, mother and daughter navigate the minefield of rehearsals, auditions and fame. This is a heart-warming glimpse into the sometimes not-so-glamorous world of show business and the delicate balance between being proud and being pushy. Stage Mum is a story for every parent who dreams big and every child who dreams bigger.

Stage Mum

James Dodson

Celebrating the wonder, comedy and adventure to be found in the most unlikely places, best-selling author James Dodson takes his young son Jack on a once-in-lifetime trip through the great cities and eccentric byways of Europe. 
 
There are two kinds of travel, someone once said: first class and with children. During the summer of 2001, Jim Dodson discovers that travelling with a kid can almost make a grown man feel - and behave - like a child again. Two battered bags and an old baseball glove in hand, father and son set out to circle the globe and spy the wonders of the world. But the best-laid plans usually tend to go awry and Jim and Jack encounter a myriad of unforeseen obstacles during their journey - some hilarious and others heartbreaking. What they discover, on the busy marketplaces and sightseeing hot spots, the country inns and dusty back roads of Western Europe, are not the knights and dragons young Jack had once dreamed of, but something far more valuable: each other's company and a world where, at the end of the day, unexpected laughter and pain can make us all friendly small-town neighbours. With humour, warmth and wisdom, James Dodson explores the meaning of father-son relationships and the importance of finding and savouring friendship, beauty and wonder - especially when you least expect them.

The Road To Somewhere

Lisa Lynch

Updated with new material, The C Word is the incredibly moving, darkly humorous account of one woman's fight against breast cancer. Now a BBC Drama starring Sheridan Smith. 
 
The last thing Lisa Lynch had expected to put on her 'things to do before you're 30' list was beating breast cancer, but them's the breaks. So with her life on hold, and her mind stuffed with unspoken fears, questions and emotions, she turned to her computer and started blogging about the frustrating, life-altering, sheer pain-in-the-arse inconvenience of getting breast cancer at the age of 28. 
 
The C-Word is an unflinchingly honest and darkly humorous account of Lisa's battle with The Bullshit, as she came to call it. From the good days when she could almost pretend it wasn't happening, to the bad days, when she couldn't bear to wake up, Lisa's story is emotional, heartbreaking and often hilarious. The C-Word will make you laugh and cry, and ultimately reaffirm your faith in life.

The C-Word

Jennifer Cox

They say there's someone for everyone. 
 
But what if 'The One' lives in Winnipeg rather than Wimbledon? Or Port Stanley instead of Livingstone? Or, even in Eden... New South Wales? 
 
How far would you go to find them? Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco? 
 
As a seasoned travel writer and broadcaster, Jennifer has embarked on plenty of epic adventures before and explored some of the world's most remote regions. She's bonded with people the world over - but she can't, for the life of her, seem to find a soul mate in London. She's tried every dating technique known to womankind, all to no avail. And so she decides to set out on the trip of a lifetime, dating her way around the globe to find the man of her dreams. And date them she does: From the Skate Date in Paris to the High Roller in Vegas, from the Love Professor in Sweden and the Dead Date in Italy to the Penguin Ranger in Australia. But just as she crosses the international dateline one more time, juggling doubts and excess baggage, the impossible happens - has she finally met Mr Right?

Around The World In 80 Dates

Rosy Edwards

The laugh-out-loud true story of one girl's experience of life on Tinder. 
 
Rosy Edwards is the epitome of a contradictory twenty-something year old. She’s frugal when it comes to food shopping, but is willing to splash out on shampoo. She’s career minded, she just doesn’t know which career to have in mind right now. And although she’s happy being single, a part of her kind of wants a boyfriend. 
 
So after a few unsuccessful dates with friends of friends (read: being forced to date their shortest/dullest/oddest acquaintance), she put herself on Tinder, the app that has transformed the world of online dating. And she soon learns the unspoken rules the hard way: always reject a guy with black and white profile pics (he is ginger and/or ugly); is wearing a hat (bald); has a shot of his torso (moron) or is not standing beside anything scaleable (5”8 and under). 
 
And then there are the dates themselves. From a sky-high dinner date to a borderline drug bust in Chelsea, Rosy has experienced it all, swinging through her love life on the trapeze of Tinder. She falls for the wrong guys, ditches the nice ones, but can she finally find her happy ending. 
 
Brilliantly honest and hilariously funny, Rosy’s story shows us all that the key to a successful love life could just be a swipe away.

Confessions of a Tinderella

Emma Charles

'In many ways we were an ordinary family: mum, dad, two kids, three dogs, one rabbit, two guinea pigs. I stayed at home, studying with the Open University, and dad worked, and the kids went to private schools. We lived in a rather nice semi in a rather nice area of Edinburgh, with a rather nice Volvo in the drive, and took rather nice holidays, wearing rather nice clothes. I loved Daniel deeply and I thought - no, I was sure - he loved me deeply, too. And we both loved our kids deeply (I thought). And that was as it should be. We had it made. 
 
In some ways we weren't a completely ordinary family. There was Daniel, for one; he worked for most of the time we were married as a ship's engineer, and so he was away from home for up to four months and then home on leave for up to two. And Tamsin, our fifteen-year-old daughter, had specific learning difficulties. 
 
But I'm pretty ordinary: an unlikely heroine. I am disabled because of back problems. I'm pretty fat - I've put on a lot of weight through lack of exercise and, yes, comfort-eating! Not the stuff of movies. 
 
But I never for a moment dreamt that my family was all that extraordinary - until that day when Tamsin broke down and told me that her father, my loving husband, had been sexually abusing her.'

How Could He Do It?

James Patterson

Cory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. But one fateful March morning in 1989, the course of Cory's life changed dramatically. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head; before long, overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. 
 
Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family were left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen-year struggle which took them beyond breaking point.

Torn Apart

The True Story of a Childhood Lost

Stephen Venables

Like the swallows, our son Ollie came in the spring and left in the autumn. Dancing, singing, swooping - there was something birdlike about his energy, joy and laughter - but also the fleeting, enigmatic quality of his life. 
 
When he was two he lost all his speech, as autism turned his life - and ours - into a baffling challenge. Then at four he had to face a new challenge when he almost died from leukaemia. But chemotherapy worked its magic and he made a full recovery. He was a tough survivor and nothing seemed to dim his spirit: he could light up a room and energize everyone around him. So it was a huge shock, after several cancer-free years, when a fatal brain tumour was discovered. This time his body had had enough and he died very suddenly. He was twelve. 
 
Ollie had extraordinary courage and endurance. Time after time he bounced back, determined to enjoy life. He was obstinate, mischievous, playful, flirtatious, quixotic, funny. He generated - and continues to generate - huge amounts of laughter. And he was very beautiful. We always felt that if autism had not unravelled the wiring of his neural pathways, he would have achieved extraordinary things. 
 
This is the story of the journey we made with Ollie. Unlike a mountaineer, pursuing extreme experiences out of choice, he had difficulty thrust upon him: he was forced to be brave. For me, too, the journey was far more compelling than any expedition.

Ollie

The True Story of a Brief and Courageous Life

Linda Papadopoulos

It comes as no surprise that men and women see things differently - from the way that they approach problems to how they deal with emotional difficulties - but when it comes to relationships, there is certainly never a dull moment. 
 
Just how can we penetrate the language barrier of 'manspeak'? What exactly does he mean when he says 'you have curves'? When he suggests you grab a coffee, does he just want a coffee or does he really want to grab a whole lot more? And why do we ever ask 'Does my bum look big in this?' when no answer on the face of this planet is ever correct? Dr Linda Papadopoulos takes us on a journey through a relationship lifespan from the first-date disasters through to meeting the parents and popping the Big Question and beyond, looking at the common pitfalls and how to avoid them. 
 
By utilising the principles of the revolutionary Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, we learn how to identify the problems, how to become more aware of our own thought processes and perceptions and how to analyse them to make communication that bit easier. 
 
Funny, frank and extremely accessible, What Men Say, What Women Hear is an indispensable guide for the modern woman who may be able to run countries, juggle a hectic household and power walk in high heels but who, no matter how hard she tries, just can't seem to understand what the man in her life means.

What Men Say, What Women Hear

Julia Scheeres

All Julia Scheeres ever wanted was to have a normal, happy family. But when her fanatical mother decides they should all move to rural Indiana, Julia's life begins to unravel. 
 
In the blistering heat of the isolating community, Julia and her adopted brother David struggle together through adolescence. But with a mother who whose first concern is her church missionaries, and a distant father whose rare presence is resented by all and feared by others, home for Julia becomes a place of unspeakable secrets...

Another Hour On A Sunday Morning

Jean Ritchie

'I'll always remember that Christmas. It was the day the angel came...' 
 
It is Christmas Eve and Lisa faces another Christmas alone. After running away from home as a teenager to live with a man who treated her badly, Lisa has spent years searching for a peace and happiness that seem forever out of her reach. Now, at the age of 35, although she's settled in a job, she has never managed to open herself up to love. 
 
 
For Lisa has a hidden guilt that's been at the centre of her life for as long as she can remember. And on this lonely Christmas Eve, the burden becomes too much to bear. But then something extraordinary happens, and suddenly Lisa realises that perhaps there is hope. And maybe it's time to forgive herself for her mistakes. There are many obstacles to overcome, but with the help of her angel, Lisa can learn to heal the rifts from her past, and find a love that will last...

The Day the Angel Came

Jean Hannah Edelstein

As we tumble headlong into the second decade of the third millennium, we are in an era of unprecedented freedom to be whatever we want to be, in defiance of fusty old gender stereotypes. But while the women revel in ruling the boardroom, the men make magic in the kitchen, and everyone does rather unusual things in the bedroom, all of this freedom does have its downside: without understanding the fundamental differences between the genders, we're in for an era of dire confusion when it comes to living with the other half of humanity. 
 
But don't furrow your brow. Jean Hannah Edelstein is here to lead you through the perplexing questions of what it means to be a man or a woman in the twenty-first century. 
 
With a spectacular talent for unpicking social trends, Edelstein draws equally on experiential and anecdotal evidence, as well as the latest scientific studies, delivering a witty, edgy and definitive manual to understanding your partner/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend. Welcome a fresh new expert on men and women and the contradictory languages they speak.

Himglish and Femalese

Why women don't get why men don't get them

Chelsea Handler

'Many people feel like a one-night stand is something to be ashamed or embarrassed of. I disagree...' 
 
We've all (well not quite all, perhaps) had at least one: a one-night stand. Often embarrassing and uncomfortable, occasionally outlandish, but most times just a necessary and irresistible evil, the one-night-stand is a social rite as old as sex itself and as common as a bar stool. 
 
Enter Chelsea Handler. Gorgeous, sharp, and anything but shy, Chelsea loves men... Lots of them. My Horizontal Life chronicles Chelsea's romps through the bedrooms of a host of potential suitors, uncovering what can happen in one night of passion between a man and a sometimes very intoxicated woman. 
 
From her short fling with a Vegas stripper named Thunder to her even shorter fling with a very short man, she recalls her myriad one-night stands with hilarious honesty. My Horizontal Life is a sensationally frank and funny memoir of sexual life, and a gloriously quirky take on why we do the things we do. Whether you have been there yourself or not, its one guilty pleasure you won't be ashamed to talk about in the morning...

My Horizontal Life

Helena Frith Powell

Sooner or later, it happens to everyone: getting older. Some do it gracefully, others less so, but no one is immune to wrinkles and grey hair creeping up, seemingly overnight. And once they're there, they're hard to shift. 
 
Helena Frith Powell, fashion and lifestyle journalist extraordinaire, didn't even want to think about surrender. Surely, something could be done about advancing age? Armed with potions, lotions and pills (as well as resorting to a few much more extreme measures), she sets out to investigate any and all anti-aging tricks out there. From green tea and botox to yoga and exfoliating masks, To Hell in High Heels is the hilariously funny tale of one woman taking on the body clock, giving you a tried-and-tested survival guide for that ill-fated moment when the first wrinkle dares show its face.

To Hell in High Heels

Anne Nolan

The Nolan Sisters swung with Sinatra, sang at the Royal Variety Performance and toured the world to crowds of adoring fans. 
 
They were one of the first superstar girl groups. 
 
But darkness lurked behind their glamorous, spotless public image. 
 
As the eldest Nolan sister, Anne Nolan's life appeared exciting and glamorous - a dream come true for any young singer. Surrounded by a bevy of loving sisters, two protective brothers and parents who wanted to see their children succeed, how could Anne Nolan's childhood have been anything but idyllic? 
 
And yet behind the fairytale script, behind the fame and glitz, lay hidden dark family secrets that have, until now, never been told. What drove a wedge between the sisters? 
 
Anne's story begins in Dublin and moves to the club scene of Blackpool, the scenes of a secret life - one that had to remain hidden, one of fear and pain that has cast a terrible shadow over her entire life. Finally, after decades of silence, Anne Nolan reveals the brutal truth behind the Nolans' carefully cultivated image in this startling and gripping autobiography.

Anne's Song

Alastair Campbell

She likes a drink. Everyone has a problem. 
 
Hannah is seventeen. A drink makes her feel better. For a bit. But then she feels worse and the pain inside comes back. 
 
This is the story of Hannah’s addiction as seen by the people around her – her mum, her little sister, her best friend, her best friend’s mother, her mum’s boyfriend… 
 
Powerful and passionate, their voices shed a sometimes shocking, sometimes tender light on a life veering terrifyingly off course. 
 
‘Campbell has taken the vilified, sprawling, drunken youths caricatured in tabloid headlines and, in one young girl, showed us the damaged human beings beneath.’ The Times 
 
‘This superb book is sad, terrifying and uplifting in equal measure. Every parent, every young man or woman and anyone who “likes a drink” should read it.’ Anne Robinson

My Name Is...

Barbie Probert-Wright

Two sisters. 
One extraordinary true story. 
 
Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their father missing in action, sisters Barbie and Eva were confronted with an impossible choice. 
 
Should they stay and face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother? 
 
Together, they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship, extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity. 
 
Against all odds, they both survived. 
But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed . . . 
 
This is the powerful true story of their escape.

Escape

Our journey home through war-torn Germany

Two sisters. A broken childhood. A heartbreaking journey. 
 
The extraordinary true story of surviving the unimaginable ... 
 
In 1945, seven-year-old Barbie and her sister Eva were trapped, terrified, in wartorn Germany. With their father missing, and hundreds of miles from their mother, news of the approaching army left them confronted with an impossible choice: to face invasion, or to flee on foot. 
 
Eva, aged nineteen, was determined to find her mother. For Barbie, twelve years younger, the journey was to be more perilous but, spurred on by her sister's courage and her desperate desire to be reunited with her mother, she joined Eva on a journey no child should ever have to endure. 
 
Over three hundred miles across a country ravaged by a terrible war, they encountered unimaginable hardship, extraordinary courage and overwhelming generosity. Against all the odds, they survived. But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed ...

Little Girl Lost

Kevin Dutton

'A surprising, absorbing and perceptive book. I found it altogether fascinating' PHILIP PULLMAN 
______________________________________________________ 
 
Psychopath. No sooner is the word out than images of murderers, rapists, suicide bombers and gangsters flash across our minds. 
 
But unlike their film and television counterparts, not all psychopaths are violent, or even criminal. Far from it. In fact, they have a lot of good things going for them. Psychopaths are fearless, confident, charismatic, ruthless and focused - qualities tailor-made for success in twenty-first-century society. 
 
In this groundbreaking adventure into the world of psychopaths, renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals a shocking truth: beneath the hype and the popular stereotype, psychopaths have something to teach us. 
 
With a new introduction from the author 
___________________________________________ 
 
'Highly original . . . provocative and humorous' V. S. RAMACHANDRAN 
 
'This startling study considers whether or not we have anything to learn from psychopaths . . . it's good to know that rubbing shoulders with such dangerous characters hasn't destroyed his sense of humour.' THE TIMES 
 
'Inspiring and revelatory. Dutton's book gave me an insight into who I really am' ANDY McNAB 
 
'Dutton's curiosity takes him from boardrooms and law courts to neurological labs . . . Psychopaths, we learn, are the ultimate optimists; they always think things will work in their favour' GUARDIAN 
 
'The Wisdom of Psychopaths is captivating. Dr. Dutton's book invigorated my consideration of not just a certain television character, but slow-pulsed overachievers everywhere' MICHAEL C HALL (Dexter)

The Wisdom of Psychopaths

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

The Dirty Girls Social Club was formed by six very different Latina women who met at college in Boston and swore they'd be friends for the rest of their lives. They all feel perfectly licensed to tell each other what to do and how to live their lives, and boy do they ever! Bold, funny, moving and smart, The Dirty Girls Social Club is a life-affirming read with all the glamour, gusto, humour and candour you'd expect from your best girlfriends.

Dirty Girls Social Club

Arthur Bloch

Murphy's Law - popularly known as Sod's Law - with acknowledgements to Parkinson's Law and the Peter Principle - explains the truth of man's existence: that if anything can go wrong, it will. In three volumes of murphology, Arthur Bloch has provided the only comfort possible - laughter - for all those who have ever been exasperated by things going wrong, with a set of rules offering a wise and witty view of the human predicament  in the cosmos.

Murphy's Law

Complete

Lyndsey Harris

Andrew Crofts

For the first six years of her life, Sarah Harris was a happy and popular little girl. Until she became the target of a dangerous but invisible enemy - and her life became a living hell. Before long she was suspended from school, alienated from her friends, and terrified of herself. 
 
For her mother, Lyndsey, it was a life beyond her worst nightmares. The daughter she loved so much seemed to have transformed overnight into a child she was almost scared of. Her little girl was doing the unthinkable: stealing razor blades, attempting to poison her friends, even accusing her parents of sexual abuse. 
 
Soon Lyndsey's marriage was on the verge of collapse, social services stepped in, and Lyndsey was fighting to keep her family together - and to save her daughter's sanity. But worse was to come as Lyndsey discovered her family had been victims of the most hurtful betrayal of all...

Betrayed

Anthony Clare

Spike Milligan

In 1982, leading psychiatrist and TV presenter Anthony Clare interviewed Spike Milligan for the radio series In The Psychiatrist's Chair, a show in which Clare led revealing interviews with a range of celebrities. He was so overwhelmed by Milligan's account of his forty years of depressive experiences that he knew he had found the person to help him illuminate and explore the mysterious and sometimes terrifying illness that is clinical depression. 
 
Depression and How to Survive It is the result of this collaboration, through which Anthony Clare charts the development of Spike Milligan's illness and the strategies he uses in dealing with the often misunderstood disorder of clinical depression. Drawing inspiration and advice from Spike's experience, Depression and How to Survive It is a book which takes you to the depths of human unhappiness in order to show you the way towards leading a happy life. 
 
A unique book about human psychology from one of Britain's most successful psychiatrists, providing a revelatory insight into the mind of Spike Milligan, everyone's favourite goon.

Depression And How To Survive It

Grace Saunders

Need help with wardrobe essentials, exercises and quick beauty fixes to suit your new life? Looking for advice on relationships, sleep, sex (or lack of both!) and work-life balance? Help is at hand! Fashion and lifestyle journalist Grace Saunders - herself a mum-of-three - brings you the ultimate survival guide, packed to the brim with practical advice, useful tricks and brilliantly creative solutions to conquer any and all challenges of motherhood. 
 
 
Important erratum: On page 283 of The Fabulous Mum's Handbook the author quotes a mother described as "Henrietta Hill, barrister". We should like to make it clear that this is a pseudonym used by the author to protect the identity of the interviewee who chose to remain anonymous. The quotation was not made by Henrietta Hill, who is the mother of one child and who is a barrister practising at Doughty Street Chambers: http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/barristers/henrietta_hill.cfm

The Fabulous Mum's Handbook

Jon Edwards

Luisa Edwards

Brought up as female for fifteen years, Jon can remember feeling different from other girls since he was only five years old. 
 
But it will take years of depression, incessant bullying, self-harm and isolation before he discovers why. 
 
When Jon eventually confides to his mother that he feels like a boy, Luisa commits herself unconditionally to helping her child. 
 
For Jon, the changes that follow are his path to happiness. But for Luisa, this means coming to terms with the enormous loss of her daughter.

The Boy Who Was Born a Girl

One Mother’s Unconditional Love for Her Child

Dinah O'Dowd

Cry Salty Tears is the tale of a mother's survival and eventual triumph over almost unbelievable domestic hardship. Not only did Dinah O'Dowd face the harsh and unforgiving elements of her background - an upbringing in poverty-stricken 50s Dublin, teenage pregnancy and a lone journey to London, but she also fought like a tigress against the shadows cast across four decades of her life by the dark central figure of her existence, her psychotically abusive husband Gerry. 
 
Over the years Dinah suffered repeated physical assault, prolonged mental torture and destructive ignorance, yet successfully raised a family of six and nurtured the unique personality of a world superstar, her son Boy George. Finally she has reached equilibrium in the wake of the death of her husband, and is now ready to tell her story, striking a chord with women everywhere. 
 
Unflinchingly honest, heart-rending in the telling and packed with inconsolable tragedy and biting wit, Cry Salty Tears recounts the long and painful journey Dinah had to take. From the moment when she first set eyes on the charming, blue-eyed Gerry, to the first blow he struck when she was pregnant with their child, the suicide attempt that depression and all encompassing fear led her to and ultimately to her release from his psychotic clutches, Cry Salty Tears tells how, despite it all, this extraordinary woman could at last reclaim her life.

Cry Salty Tears

Dale Winton

For over 25 years, Dale Winton (1955-2018) was one of Britain's most popular stars. 
 
His warm and winning ways made him one of Britain's most popular and powerful personalities on TV, radio and with live audiences everywhere – but Dale's life was far from perfect. 
 
The story of his private life was traumatic and eventful, a tale of childhood insecurity, poverty and heartbreaking family tragedy – but also courage, commitment and strength. In this emotional, heartfelt book, Dale discusses the problems, the pain and the personalities of a life lived to the full in the mad world of showbusiness – as well as his plastic surgery, his lifelong battle with his weight, and the complicated truth about his sexuality. 
 
Rawest and most affecting is his honest account of his relationship with his parents, his bullying father who died on the day of Dale’s bar mitzvah – but particularly his close relationship with his troubled mother, whose struggle with depression ended with her taking her own life, her body found by Dale just days after his 21st birthday. 
 
With an eye to the future as well as his fascinating past, Dale Winton's autobiography will make compelling reading for millions, testament to the legacy of one of Britain's great entertainers.

Showing results for: ‘Steve Roud’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter