Autobiography/Bio/Non-Fiction

//Autobiography/Bio/Non-Fiction
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  • Amanda Barrie was a star of the English stage, screen and the occasional Carry On film.  She was believed to be a slow learner for years as she could not read, so she would have a friend repeat her lines over and over to her until she was word perfect and completely cued-in!  She was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. Here she recounts anecdotes from her packed professional life and talks frankly and without self-pity about her disrupted childhood, disastrous schooldays and her relationships with both men and women, including remarkable threesomes with her husband Robin Hunter.  An ideal piece for any Carry On fan. Illustrated with black and white and colour photographs.

  • If you got a call that Batman was assaulting Spider-Man and the person who called it in was Marilyn Monroe, who is actually a 6'3" transvestite, there's only one place you could be: nothing is too weird in Los Angeles. For the cops of Hollywood Station, policing crack-heads dressed as cartoon characters is business as usual. But when there's a diamond robbery connected to the Russian Mafia and a pair of totally clueless and ambitious crystal meth addicts, the pieces have got to be put together by the sergeant they call the Oracle and his squad of street cops. There's Budgie Polk, a twenty-something firecracker with a four-month-old at home; Wesley Drubb, a rich boy who joined the force seeking thrills; Fausto Gamboa is the tetchy veteran; and Hollywood Nate, who never shuts up about movies. They spend their days in patrol cars and their nights in the underbelly of a city that never sleeps. From their headquarters at Hollywood Station, they see the glamour city for what it is: a field of land mines, where the mundane is dangerous and the dangerous is mundane.

  • The sequel to Crow On A Barbed Wire Fence. Bluey's adventures did not end with his departure from Australia in 1914. In this sequel he tells of his London childhood and why he visited Australia in the first place.  There's also the tale of his escape from the German naval fleet in World War I, his role in two mutinies and the headline stories he reported as a Fleet Street journo, sportswriter and radio interviewer.  Last but not least, he tells of his family life and his achievements as a successful magazine publisher  - what a full, rich and adventurous life!

  • This is the history of a man, the electric guitar and an era of music that will never be forgotten. Murray pulls up the rug where good rock 'n' roll hides and rips through the floorboards with prose as bold and explosive as Hendrix's guitar. Here is an insightful and poignant book about the music of Jimi Hendrix and how rock culture and its influence defined an era. With fabulous archival colour and black and white photos.

  • Following his book about football in the north-east, The Far Corner, Harry Pearson vowed that his next project would not involve hanging around outdoors on days so cold that itinerant dogs had to be detached from lamp-posts by firemen. It would be about the summer: specifically, about a summer of shows and fairs in the north of England. Encompassing such diverse talents as fell-running, tupperware-boxing and rabbit fancying (literally), and containing many more jokes about goats than is legal in the Isle of Man, Racing Pigs and Giant Marrows must be the only book in existence to explain the design faults of earwigs and expose English farmers' fondness for transvestism. It is also Harry's search for the English summer country fairs he remembers from his youth.  Also included: the tale of the supernaturally dense Archway baby and the staying power of cinder-toffee.

  • The ultimate and intimate bio of Elizabeth Taylor. Child star in National Velvet, youthful object of desire controlled by her mother and MGM, Oscar-winning actress in Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, eight-time wife and champion of funding for AIDS research and intimate of celebrities and tycoons for six decades. The volume contains never-before published studio documentation, interviews with stars, directors, friends and family, her battle with weight issues, alcohol and drug addiction, affairs, lovers and husbands, her own million-dollar perfume and jewellery lines - it's all here and more. Lavishly illustrated with black and white photos.
  • The autobiographical tale of  Rick Braithwaite's battle to find work in post-war London. A trained engineer, he could only find work as a teacher. When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Braithewaite is saddened and angered by her prejudice. In cosmopolitan London, he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school he finds the same hostile prejudice. Yet slowly and painfully, the barriers begin to break. He shames his pupils, wrestles with them, enlightens them and eventually comes to love them - as they come to love and respect him. To Sir With Love is the story of a dedicated teacher who turns hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into energetic self-respect, contempt into consideration for others - the story of a man's own integrity winning through against all the odds.
  • When John Baker died of cancer, many of his friends in the small Yorkshire village of Cracoe were devastated. During his illness, Tricia had joked with him about creating an alternative W.I. calendar - she and his wife Angela were members - but she had no notion of the events she would set in motion. Expecting only local interest, the ladies were stunned by the media frenzy when the calendar was launched in 1999. Over the next two years, the calendar girls found themselves in newspapers, on television, chosen as Women of the Year and touring America. They raised £500,000 for leukaemia research. This is NOT a film novelisation - this is the true story of the highs, lows, funny moments and sad ones too. 'It's not naked - it's nude!"

  • Or: Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. There's plenty of books on manners and etiquette, and this book is not about either. It's about the rudeness of modern life and the sense of outrage we all experience when we discover that other people are crass, selfish and inconsiderate. You ask a shop assistant, "Can you tell me the price of this? There doesn't appear to be a label," and she says, "What d'you think I am, psychic?" Whatever happened to please and thank you? Why do people behave in public as if they're in private? It's about that sort of bad manners. A  bitingly humorous look at the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life, from maddening mobile phones to stupid slang.