'An outstanding insight into the life and career of one of the greatest National Hunt jockeys. The bad days, the good days, the passion - it's all there' - Rachael Blackmore'Davy Russell's story has been the most fascinating of racing journeys, Donn McClean its classiest chronicler. It makes a National winning combination' - Brough Scott'Davy Russell is one of the most interesting characters in racing and one of the most successful ...

You’ll laugh at them and you’ll cry with them; you’ll wonder at them and you’ll sigh with them. But you’ll never forget the residents of Stillwater. South Africa may now be a rainbow nation, but try telling that to the mainly white and wacky inhabitants of Stillwater. When a black minister is appointed to the local Methodist Church, the congregation are up in arms and the much feared Women’s Auxiliary is on the warpath. And when the new minister’s son gets caught up in a nasty assault, the...

Sleepy rustic Carmarthenshire was secretly a hotbed of debauchery, violence and drunkenness according to Russell Davies in a new edition of his very successful book, Secret Sins. Behind the facade of idyllic rural life, there was a twilight world of mental illness, suicide, crime, vicious assaults, infanticide, cruelty and other assorted acts of depravity. This almost anecdotal historical study is often funny, sometimes disturbing, always revealing.

The first of two volumes on the social history of Wales in the period 1870–1948, People, Places and Passions concentrates on the social events and changes which created and forged Wales into the mid-twentieth century. This volume considers a range of social changes little considered elsewhere by studies in Welsh history, accounting for the role played by the people of Wales in times of war and the age of the British Empire, and in technological change and innovation, as they travelled the ...

In an extended account of national identity, this companion volume to People, Places and Passions provides the first detailed study of the sexual and spiritual life of Wales in the period 1870–1945. The author argues that whilst Wales and its people experienced a disenchantment of the spiritual world, a revolution in sexual life was taking place. This innovative study examines how advances in life expectancy and improvements in health were reflected in emotional life. In contrast to the tr...

To mark the 20th anniversary of Kenneth Williams’ death, a beautiful coffee table book celebrating his life, including never-before-seen photographs, sketches and personal testimony from Williams’ closest friends, for the very first time.2008 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of legendary comic actor and broadcaster Kenneth Williams. Among the actor's bequests, in a will which itself was controversial enough to require re-examination, was a large cache of private papers and m...

'An outstanding insight into the life and career of one of the greatest National Hunt jockeys. The bad days, the good days, the passion - it's all there' - Rachael Blackmore'Davy Russell's story has been the most fascinating of racing journeys, Donn McClean its classiest chronicler. It makes a National winning combination' - Brough Scott'Davy Russell is one of the most interesting characters in racing and one of the most successful ...

Kenneth Williams was the stand-out comic actor of his generation. Beloved as the manic star of Carry On films and as a peerless raconteur on TV chat shows, he was also acclaimed for serious stage roles.Born Brilliant includes previously unseen material from Williams's candid daily journal and also draw on rare in-depth interviews with friends and colleagues. Since the publication of edited extracts from his diaries, much controversy has surrounded Williams's perso...

The hardback of this first and authorised biography received very good reviews and immediately reprinted. It tells the story of one of the heroines of post-war British comedy, on radio, film and TV.Hattie Jacques is known as the billowing, imposing Matron in the Carry On films, as the star of such BBC radio classics as ITMA, Educating Archie and Hancock’s Half Hour, and as the fictional sister of Eric Sykes in his long-running TV sitcom.But the formidable, frumpy galleon-in...

Margaret Rutherford was without a doubt one of Britain’s best-loved comic actresses. But behind the kindly, serene front Rutherford presented to the world lay a life of trauma and repeated nervous breakdown – the legacy of the legacy of family tragedy that saw her father murder her grandfather during a bout of mental illness and her depressive mother later kill herself.Andy Merriman’s acclaimed biography intrigued and shocked readers with these revelations when it was published in ...

DIVING HEADLONG INTO RIB TICKLING SITUATIONS, WITH HILARIOUS CONSEQUENCES. THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD!! Leading up to retirement, authoress Patti Trickett and her husband Chris bought a 2 berth motor home. Enjoying regular short breaks in the U.K; they eventually had an extended tour of Scotland to celebrate their retirement. Learning the necessary skills of touring, the experienced some hilarious situations! Returning home, they decided to do extensive planning, and drive thei...

With his sly little moustache, broad gap-toothed grin, garish waistcoats and ostentatious cigarette holder, Terry-Thomas was known as an absolute bounder, both onscreen and off. Graham McCann’ s hugely entertaining biography celebrates the life and career of a very English rascal.Born in 1911 into an ordinary suburban family, Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens set about transforming himself at a very early age into a dandy and a gadabout. But he did not put the finishing touches to his pers...