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

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Steve Jones

NOW A LIMITED SERIES DIRECTED BY DANNY BOYLE 
_____________________ 
 
Foreword by Chrissie Hynde 
 
Without the Sex Pistols there would be no punk rock, and without Steve Jones there would be no Sex Pistols. 
 
It was Steve who formed Kutie Jones and his Sex Pistols, the band that eventually went on to become the Sex Pistols, with his schoolmate Paul Cook and who was its original leader. As the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of Punk - the influence and cultural significance of which is felt in music, fashion and the visual arts to this day - Steve tells his story for the very first time. 
 
Rising from the streets of Hammersmith, Steve Jones was once a lonely, neglected boy living off his wits and petty thievery. Given purpose by the glam art rock of David Bowie and Roxy Music, he became one of the first generation of punks taken under the wings of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. For the very first time Steve describes the neglect and abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, and how his interest in music and fashion saved him from a potential life of crime. 
 
From the Kings Road of the early seventies, through the years of the Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and the recording of Never Mind the Bollocks (ranked number 41 in Rolling Stone magazine's Best Albums of All Time), to his self-imposed exile in New York and Los Angeles where he battled with alcohol, heroin and sex addiction - caught in a cycle of rehab and relapse - Lonely Boy, written with music journalist and author Ben Thompson, is the story of an unlikely guitar hero who, with the Sex Pistols, changed history.

Lonely Boy

Tales from a Sex Pistol (Soon to be a limited series directed by Danny Boyle)

Luke Haines

In Post Everything, Luke Haines demonstrates that the only way to survive the tyrannical scourge of Britpop is to become an Outsider. The 'avant-garde Arthur Scargill' calls upon the nation's pop stars to down tools and go on strike. We learn the story of Haines' post-Britpop art house trio Black Box Recorder (Chas and Dave with a chanteuse), we meet a talking cat, two dead rappers (Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur), and a mystical England football manager. Haines even finds time to write a musical for the National Theatre. 
 
Blisteringly funny and searingly scathing, Post Everything may quite possibly be the first and only truly surreal comic rock memoir. It even contains a killer recipe for scrambled eggs.

Post Everything

Outsider Rock and Roll

Alex Stone

Alex Stone, part of the underground magic circuit, is determined to take his lifelong hobby to the professional level, to reach the pinnacle of this bizarre world and become a master magician. 
 
Combining his passion for magic with his studies in Physics, Stone takes us on a journey through a strange and colourful subculture of brilliant characters - a blind card sharp, street-hustlers, Las Vegas showmen and world-leading scientists - as he seeks answers to the questions about the limits of perception and the psychology of deception and decision-making. By pulling back the curtain, Stone reveals the principles and history of some of the greatest tricks ever performed.

Fooling Houdini

Adventures in the World of Magic

Liz Moore

__________________________________ 
'A remarkable novel, elegant, wise, and beautifully constructed.' Roddy Doyle 
 
Tommy Mays, Titan Records' biggest act, is verging on a mid-life crisis; learning the hard way that a life of fame and fortune comes at a price. But things are looking up for his support band, The Burn, which could be a career-changer for Theo, Titan's young A&amp;R executive. Meanwhile, secretary Cynthia has her eyes on Titan's latest rising star, singer-songwriter Lenore Lamont. But with a billboard in Times Square, is Lenore starting to feel the pressure? 
 
Set in the sleek offices, high-tech recording studios and hip downtown clubs of New York, The Words of Every Song depicts the realities of making it in an industry where glamour and fame can often conceal the harsh realities for those hoping to hit the big-time.

The Words of Every Song

from the Richard and Judy-selected author

Barry Cryer

Graeme Garden

Tim Brooke-Taylor

Jack Dee

Know your Mornington Crescent from your Cheddar Gorge? 
 
Are you partial to a bad-tempered clavier? 
 
Would you like some unhelpful travel advice? 
 
Featuring the very best moments from a forty-year history of broadcasting, Stephen Fry introduces this indispensable companion to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the Radio 4 comedy series which attracts millions of listeners each week. 
 
Featuring hilarious excerpts from the show's favourite games including: The Uxbridge English Dictionary, Famous First Words, the Trail of the Lonesome Pun and Late Arrivals as well as much much more, this book is essential for Clue fans young and old. 
 
For those new to Clue, there's a Beginner's Guide on how to play Mornington Crescent and numerous games which are fun and easy to play at home and guaranteed to entertain.

I’m Sorry I Haven't a Clue: The Best of Forty Years

Foreword by Stephen Fry

Tony Fletcher

'I was no longer fitting in at school. I was unsure of my friends, and they were increasingly unsure of me. I wanted to be a rock star. But while all around, voices were starting to break, acne beginning to appear, facial hair sprouting, I remained all flabby flesh and innate scruff, with a high-pitched whine and not a muscle to my name. I was the runt of the class and rarely allowed to forget it. I had no father at home to help me out, and could hardly talk to my mum. So I took solace in The Jam.' 
 
As a boy, Tony Fletcher frequently felt out of place. Yet somehow he secured a ringside seat for one of the most creative periods in British cultural history. 
 
Boy About Town tells the story of the bestselling author’s formative years in the pre- and post-punk music scenes of London, counting down, from fifty to number one: attendance at seminal gigs and encounters with musical heroes; schoolboy projects that became national success stories; the style culture of punks, mods and skinheads and the tribal violence that enveloped them; life as a latchkey kid in a single-parent household; weekends on the football terraces in a quest for street credibility; and the teenage boy’s unending obsession with losing his virginity. 
 
Boy About Town is an evocative, bittersweet, amusing and wholly original account of growing up and coming of age in the glory days of the 1970s.

Boy About Town

Jon Naismith

If you love QI you will love The Unbelievable Truth the most successful BBC Radio 4 panel show fronted by David Mitchell is all about identifying the unbeilevable truths from the lies. 
 
Enter Mr David Mitchell’s amazing Cabinet of Curiosities and prepare to marvel at this hand-picked and lavishly illustrated compendium of incredible facts, each one painstakingly culled from the hugely acclaimed BBC Radio and Australian TV show The Unbelievable Truth. 
 
PLUS – try your own truth-detection skills over a series of ingenious comic essays on a diverse range of subjects from Armadillos to Sir Walter Raleigh by the show’s co-inventor Dr Graeme Garden – each essay contains FIVE incredible truths, tantalisingly concealed amongst a host of barely credible lies. 
 
The Unbelievable Truth is hosted by the award-winning actor, comedian and writer David Mitchell, and was first broadcast on Radio 4 in 2006, since then it has become one of BBC Radio’s most popular and successful shows.

The Unbelievable Truth

Johanna Skibsrud

A mesmerising tale of love, justice and the connections that transcend the passage of time, from the Giller prize-winning author Johanna Skibsrud. 
 
The year is 1932, and America is roiling with unrest. Angry World War One veterans, embittered by the ruinous poverty inflicted by the Great Depression, join forces and, calling themselves the Bonus Army, march on Washington to demand payment of the wartime bonus promised them for their service during the war. 
 
Arthur and Douglas Sinclair, an impoverished veteran and his son, make the arduous journey from Kansas to join the march. Alden and Sutton Kelly, the rebellious children of a powerful Washington judge, become involved with the veterans’ struggle, causing an irreparable rift in the Kelly family. When the Bonus march explodes in a violent clash between government and veteran forces, Arthur is falsely accused of conspiracy and disappears. The lives of Douglas, Alden, and Sutton are forever changed – linked inextricably by the absence of Arthur Sinclair. 
 
As these three lives unfold, we are taken to unexpected places – from the underground world of a Soviet spy to Hemingway’s Florida and the hard labour camps of Roosevelt’s New Deal Projects in the Keys; from occultist circles in London to occupied Paris and the eventual fall of Berlin; and finally, to the German prison camp where French composer Olivier Messiaen originally wrote and performed his famous Quartet for the End of Time. Taking us on an unforgettable journey through individual experience and memory against the backdrop of seismic historical events, Quartet for the End of Time is both a profound meditation on human nature and an astonishing literary accomplishment from one of the most original voices to have emerged in recent years.

Quartet for the End of Time

Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson's singular contributions to popular music have made him one of the most beloved songwriters and guitarists of his time. With songs like ‘The Weight’, ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and ‘Up on Cripple Creek’, he and his partners in the Band fashioned a music that has endured for decades, influencing countless musicians. 
 
In this captivating memoir, written over five years of reflection, Robbie employs his unique storyteller's voice to weave together the journey that led him to some of the most pivotal events in music history. He recounts the adventures of his half-Jewish, half-Mohawk upbringing on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and on the gritty streets of Toronto; his odyssey at sixteen to the Mississippi Delta, the fountainhead of American music; the wild, early years on the road with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks; his unexpected ties to the Cosa Nostra underworld; the gripping trial-by-fire of 'going electric' with Bob Dylan on his 1966 world tour and their ensuing celebrated collaborations; the formation of the Band and the forging of their unique sound, culminating with history’s most famous farewell concert, brought to life for all time in Martin Scorsese’s great movie The Last Waltz. 
 
This is the story of a time and place - the moment when rock 'n' roll became life, when legends like Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley crisscrossed the circuit of clubs and roadhouses from Texas to Toronto, when the Beatles, Hendrix, the Stones and Warhol moved through the same streets and hotel rooms. It’s the story of exciting change as the world tumbled through the '60s and early '70s and a generation came of age, built on music, love and freedom. Above all, it’s the moving story of the profound friendship among five young men who together created a new kind of popular music. 
 
Testimony is Robbie Robertson’s story, lyrical and true, as only he could tell it.

Testimony

Dylan Jones

One Day: Saturday 13 July 1985, nearly two billion people woke up with one purpose. Nearly a third of humanity knew where they were going to be that day. Watching, listening to, attending: Live Aid. 
One Decade: Britain in the Eighties was different. The culture was different, the politics were different, and our engagement with the world was different. And it was just one day in 1985 that showed how different it was. 
 
In One Day, One Decade Dylan Jones tells the story of the Eighties through that day at Wembley, sweeping backwards to the end of the Seventies, and forward to the start of the Nineties. It draws on his personal reminiscences and perspective of music, media, fashion, politics and all forms of pop culture to frame the decade. 
 
This is a big book but not a exhaustive and dry social history. Live Aid was the decade’s pinch point, when a nation's attitudes and expectations were somehow captured and changed forever. The author suggests that before Live Aid, Britain was one place, and after Live Aid it was another. 
 
Britain in the Eighties was a juxtaposition of militancy and profligacy, a country where industry was being broken down, societies were being demolished, and unemployment became an inevitable lifestyle choice: yet the Eighties was also the apotheosis of pop culture, a decade where entertainment, opinion and subjectivity were more important than ever before. 
 
Dylan Jones was at the heart of the 1980s editing the seminal magazines i-D and The Face. He was one of the Blitz Kids and was both a commentator and one of the style-makers of the time. This is a controversial book, a story told from the inside by one who was at the centre of events.

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