Showing titles in Entertainment & Celebrities

From humble beginnings in Middlesex, where money was scarce but dreams were encouraged, to the award-winning godfather of electronica, Gary Numan has seen it all. The first: a stratospheric rise to success quickly followed by a painful decline into near obscurity. The second: a 20-plus year renaissance catalysed by a date with a super-fan. (R)evolution is the rollercoaster rise and fall (and rise) of one man, several dozen synthesisers, multiple issues and two desperately different lives.

Through the lens of their decades-long friendship and including exclusive interviews and details from previously classified documents, noted historian and New York Times best-selling author Steven M. Gillon examines John F. Kennedy Jr.’s life and legacy from before his birth to the day he died. Gillon covers the highs, the lows, and the surprising incidents, viewpoints, and relationships that John never discussed publicly, revealing the full story behind JFK Jr.'s complicated and rich life. In the end, Gillon proves that John’s life was far more than another tragedy.

The pitch went like this: Chris Butler, a retired cop, ran a private investigator firm in Concord, California. His business had a fascinating angle - his firm was staffed entirely by soccer moms. In fact, Butler employed PI Super Moms: attractive, organized, smart, and trained in investigative techniques, self-defense, and weaponry. This American Life host Ira Glass described them as "MILF: Charlie's Angels." When this story came across Pete Crooks's desk when he was working at Diablo magazine in 2010, he was instantly hooked.

In Never Give Up, global adventurer and TV presenter Bear Grylls chronicles his life and career since stepping onto screen, taking listeners along with him on his most famous adventures, sharing personal stories from his favourite expeditions and capturing his hairiest survival challenges.

Can we ever really know the truth about our parents? 'For Rory, to read and think about - in the hope it will help him to understand how it really was.' Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died and he found a file labelled 'For Rory' he knew little of its beginning or ending. Or why his peculiarly isolated childhood had so tested the bond between him and Sylvia as she single-parented two sons in a one-bedroom flat, while working full time, through the 1950s and 60s.

Based on years of astonishing research, Natalie Wood (previously published as Natasha) raises the curtain on Wood’s turbulent life. Award-winning author Suzanne Finstad conducted nearly 400 interviews with Natalie Wood’s family, close friends, legendary costars, lovers, film crews, and virtually everyone connected to her death. Through these firsthand accounts, Finstad reconstructs a life of emotional abuse and exploitation, of unimaginable fame, great loneliness, and loss.

Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise.

Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on Christmas Eve, 1945. Learning from an early age that chicks do appreciate a guy with a guitar, and inspired by the music of Elvis and Buddy Holly, Lemmy outgrew his local bands in Wales, choosing instead to head to Manchester to experience everything he could get his hands on. And he never looked back. White Line Fever, a headbanging tour of the excesses of a man being true to his music and his pleasures, offers a sometimes hilarious, often outrageous, but always highly entertaining ride with the frontman of the loudest rock band in the world.

The Lick of Love takes us on a tour of Julian's colourful life - and wherever life has taken him, Julian has had a dog by his side. Fanny the Wonder Dog, who came into Julian's life when he was somewhat adrift, propelled him up the ranks of the alternative comedy circuit and onto television. Valerie, the whippet cross-breed escorted Julian through his 40s, the Germaine Greer to his Bernard Manning. 

Dick Cavett is back, sharing his reflections and reminiscences about Hollywood legends, American cultural icons, and the absurdities of everyday life. In Brief Encounters, the legendary talk show host Dick Cavett introduces us to the fascinating characters who have crossed his path, from James Gandolfini and John Lennon to Mel Brooks and Nora Ephron, enhancing our appreciation of their talent, their personalities, and their places in the pantheon.

Matt Baker's first ever book is a diary of the natural year and a glimpse into family life on the farm, peppered with moments from his TV career throughout. Away from the bright lights of hosting our favourite television programmes, Countryfile, The One Show, Blue Peter and many more, Matt Baker is happiest on the farm with his family, dogs, array of sheep, Mediterranean miniature donkeys and a whole host of wildlife in the farm's ancient woodland.

Lots of Jacqueline Wilson's characters are well-known and well-loved by thousands of readers: Hetty Feather, Ruby and Garnet, Pearl and Jodie, Elsa, Lily and, of course, the brilliant Tracy Beaker! But how much do you know about Jacqueline herself? Jacqueline takes a look back at her own childhood and teenage years in this captivating story of friendships, loneliness, books, family life and much more. She explores her past with the same warmth and lightness of touch that make her novels so special.

If I'm going to tell the story of a life, my life, then I need to tell it warts and all. If the tale is too saccharine sweet then what can the reader take away from it? What do they learn about you? I've written everything down. The shit, the death, fun, naughtiness, addiction, laughter, laughter, laughter, some tears and lots of love and happiness. That, to me, is a better reflection of a human's life.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Where Have All the Bullets Gone?, written and read by Spike Milligan. Back to those haunting days in Italy in 1944, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, with lava running in great red rivulets down the slope towards us, and Jock taking a drag on his cigarette and saying, "I think we've got grounds for a rent rebate."

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon is part memoir, part investigation, and unlike any creative portrait you’ve ever heard before. Recorded over a series of 30 hours of conversation between Simon, Gladwell, and Gladwell’s oldest friend and co-writer, journalist and Broken Record podcast co-host Bruce Headlam, the conversation flows from Simon’s music, to his childhood in Queens, NY, to his frequent collaborators including Art Garfunkel and the nature of creativity itself.

The book reveals a life as extraordinary as his writing: difficult upbringing in the terraces of Leeds; strict Catholic education; transformative experiences in France and Algeria; time as an inspirational, unorthodox and highly creative teacher; meteoric development as a writer and performer; subsequent discovery by the BBC; Abbey Road recordings and influence on The Beatles; fame, fortune, and remarkable television career...and Jake's rejection of it all.

In 2005, Anna Massey was awarded a CBE for services to drama.Daughter of the Canadian actor, Raymond Massey (perhaps best-known for his role as Dr Gillespie in the TV series Dr Killdare), and Adrianne Allen (also a very successful stage actress), drama was in her blood. Her brother, Daniel, was a much-acclaimed actor. And even her godfather was one of the great film directors of all time – John Ford.

Mike Medavoy is a Hollywood rarity: a studio executive who, though never far from controversy, remained loved and respected through four decades of moviemaking. He helped bring to the screen some of the most acclaimed Oscar-winning films of our time, including Apocalypse Now, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Sleepless in Seattle.

In 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music, but it never occurred to her she could be in a band, as she couldn't play an instrument, and she'd never seen a girl play electric guitar. A year later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music. A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv's life post-punk - taking in a career in film, the pain of IVF, illness and divorce and the triumph of making music again - Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. is a remarkable memoir.

How to Grow Old is John’s offering to the world. With sage advice on how to avoid the common pitfalls of age, intimate confessions and spit-your-dentures-out hilarious commentary on his own advancing years, this is his observational comic writing at its very best. If you were concerned about how not to be boring or how to get rid of your should-be-old-enough-to-manage kids, this audiobook has the answers.