From one of America's greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood. Several days before Christmas 2003, Joan Didion's only daughter, Quintana, fell seriously ill. In 2010, Didion marked the sixth anniversary of her daughter's death. 'Blue Nights' is a shatteringly honest examination of Joan Didion's life as a mother, a woman and a writer. Recently widowed, and becoming increasingly frail, 'Blue Nights' is Didion's attempt to understand our deepest fears, our inadequate adjustments to a... read more
The number one bestselling, no holds barred autobiography of one of the nations best-loved cookswhose lifehas led her from wealth and privilege to alcoholism, bankruptcy and eventually fame in Two Fat Ladies
Alexandra Fuller was the daughter of white settlers in 1970s war-torn Rhodesia. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a memoir of that time, when a schoolgirl was as likely to carry a shotgun as a satchel. Fuller tells a story of civil war; of a quixotic battle against nature and loss; and of her family's unbreakable bond with a continent which came to define, shape, scar and heal them. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she looks back with rage and love at an extraordinary family and an extraordinary time. Like Frank McCourt, ... read more
Eric Clapton is far more than a rock star. Like Dylan and McCartney he is an icon and a living legend. He has sold tens of millions of records, played sell-out concerts all over the world and been central to the significant musical developments of his era. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as 'God'. Now for the first time, Eric tells the story of his personal and professional journeys in this pungent, witty and painfully honest autobiography. These are the memoirs of a survivor, someone who has reached the pinnacle of success,... read more
Spanning Tom Waits' extraordinary 40-year career, from "Closing Time" to "Orphans", "Lowside of the Road" is Barney Hoskyns' unique take on one of rock's great enigmas. Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is a chameleonic survivor who's achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and outsider mystique. From his perilous 'jazzbo' years in '70s Los Angeles to the multiple-Grammy winner of recent years - by way of such shape-shifting '80s albums as Swordfish Trombones - this exhaustive biography charts Waits' life ste... read more
This biography tells the true story behind the gaiety and frivolity of the six Mitford daughters - and the facts are as sensational as a novel. There is Nancy, whose bright social existence masked a doomed obsessional love, which soured her success; Pam, a countrywoman maried to one of the best brains in Europe; Diana, an iconic beauty, who was already married when, at 22, she fell in love with Oswald Moseley, leader of the British fascists; Unity, who, romantically in love with Hitler, became a member of his inner circle before sh... read more
To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West
Mark Lee Gardner
To Hell On a Fast Horse brings to life the thrilling manhunt for the Wild West's most iconic outlaw. It also will be the first dual biography of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, two larger-than-life figures from the American West who are inextricably linked - neither would become the stuff of legend without the other. Making excellent use of voluminous primary source material and decades of published scholarship on the Kid and Garrett, the book will go beneath the myth to take a fresh look at these two men, what they meant to... read more
Spanning 1979-1987, "The Fry Chronicles" charts Stephen's arrival at Cambridge up to his thirtieth birthday. "Heartbreaking, a delight, a lovely, comfy book". ("The Times"). "Perfect prose and excruciating honesty. A grand reminiscence of college and theatre and comedyland in the 1980s, with tone-perfect anecdotes and genuine readerly excitement. What Fry does, essentially, is tell us who he really is. Above all else, a thoughtful book. And namedroppy too, and funny, and marbled with melancholy". ("Observer"). "Arguably the greates... read more
Loaded with candid interviews and hard truths about Grohl's life in music, this is the first comprehensive biography of an icon whose career charts rock and roll's rise and fall over the past two decades. This book details his drumming and touring with Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails and his battle over Nirvana's legacy with Courtney Love.
It's been a long journey for Maurice Micklewhite - born with rickets in London's poverty-stricken Elephant & Castle - to the bright lights of Hollywood.With a glittering career spanning more than five decades and starring roles which have earned him two Oscars, a knighthood, and an iconic place in the Hollywood pantheon, the man now known to us as Michael Caine looks back over it all. Funny, warm, honest, Caine brings us his insider's view of Hollywood (where there's neither holly nor woods). He recalls the films, the legendary... read more
Deborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics (while not being at all political herself), finally setting the record straight. Throughout the book she writes brilliantly about the country and her deep attachment to it and those who live and work in it. As Duche... read more
By the end of the First World War, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel had revolutionised women's dress. But dress was the most visible aspect of more profound changes she helped to bring about. During the course of her extraordinary and unconventional journey - from abject poverty to a new kind of glamour - "Chanel" would help forge the very idea of modern woman. Unearthing an astonishing life, this remarkable biography shows how the most influential designer of her century became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style. Her numero... read more
A riotous, rambling and incomplete history of classical music, complete with leg measurements."Hello, I'm Stephen Fry. Now time for the first outing of a brand, spanking new feature here on The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music
Reveals Bernie Ecclestone's secrets: the deals, the marriages, the disasters and the successes on the racetrack, in Downing Street, in casinos, on yachts. This title offers an intriguing insight into the sport, business and the human spirit.
A dazzling and devastating memoir exploring breakdown and obsessive love, in a voice unlike any other.
Edward Thomas was perhaps the most beguiling and influential of First World War poets. "Now All Roads Lead to France" is an account of his final five years, centred on his extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost and Thomas' fatal decision to fight in the war. The book also evokes an astonishingly creative moment in English literature, when London was a battleground for new, ambitious kinds of writing. A generation that included W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost and Rupert Brooke were 'making it new' - vehemently and pugnacio... read more
One of Britain's most distinguished biographers turns her focus on one of the most vilified women of the twentieth century. Historian Anne Sebba has written the first full biography by a woman of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. 'That woman', as she was referred to by the Queen Mother, became a hate figure for ensnaring a British king and destabilising the monarchy. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, she nevertheless became one of the most talked-about women of her generation, and she inspired such deep love and adoration in Edwar... read more
In 2006 Marianne Elliott, a human rights lawyer from New Zealand, is stationed with the UN in Herat. Several months into her new role an important tribal leader is assassinated while she is in charge of the local UN office. She must try to diffuse the situation before it leads to widespread bloodshed. Zen Under Fire is a vivid and deeply personal account of a young woman's time living and working as a peacekeeper in one of the world's most notorious battlegrounds. As well as sharing the incredible details of her UN work in and arou... read more
'My husband died, my life collapsed.' On a February morning in 2008, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the emergency room of the Princeton Medical Center where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Both Joyce and Ray expected him to be released in a day or two. But in less than a week, even as Joyce was preparing for his discharge, Ray was dead from a hospital-acquired virulent infection, and Joyce was suddenly faced - totally unprepared - with the reality of widowhood. A WIDOW'S STORY illuminates one wom... read more
