NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING DAME MAGGIE SMITH'The first book that ever made me laugh out loud' Adam Kay'Utter genius' Daily MailIn 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken down van into Alan Bennett's garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennett, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifte...

The vivid account of a war correspondent shot down over Germany and taken prisoner.Bennett was one of several journalists to fly a night raid over Berlin in November 1943. This is the vivid testimony of an American journalist shot down over Berlin. After he was captured in Berlin, he was taken on a tour of Germany and shown what the civilian population was being subjected to. Bennett spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft I, where he started the newspaper POW WOW, secretly read by...

THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**A TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMER'Alan Bennett is our greatest living writer' Daily Mail'A legend of British letters' Financial Times'In an age of curated self-belief, his vulnerabilities feel refreshing, his reticence almost radical' The Times**20 September. Have a notion for a radio series - Awkward Conversations.Enoug...

*** Pre-order ENOUGH SAID, Alan Bennett's fourth collection of diaries and prose, now! Publishing March 2026 ***Killing Time is a wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett - a new story, set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.'A mini-masterpiece.' THE TIMES'Full of wit and style.' OBSERVER'A terrific cast of characters, and secrets and chaos aplenty.' iNEWS

'I seem to have banged on this year rather more than usual. I make no apology for that, nor am I nervous that it will it make a jot of difference. I shall still be thought to be kindly, cosy and essentially harmless. I am in the pigeon-hole marked 'no threat' and did I stab Judi Dench with a pitchfork I should still be a teddy bear.'Alan Bennett's third collection of prose Keeping On Keeping On follows in the footsteps of the phenomenally successful Writing Ho...

*** Pre-order ENOUGH SAID, Alan Bennett's fourth collection of diaries and prose, now! Publishing March 2026 ***You don't have to believe it. I always took the Matthew Passion with a pinch of salt.Ramsden, Yorkshire, 1916. The ambitious local Choral Society is depleted as men volunteer for the front and plans for their St Matthew Passion by German composer J. S. Bach are scuppered by patriotic fervour. Dr Guthrie, the my...

Clive Dunlop was a masseur of exceptional talents. His 'services' were much in demand amongst the great and the good and after his untimely death at the age of 34 they -- the film stars and politicians, the writers and publishers, the TV pundits and celebrity chefs -- are gathered for his memorial service. The conduct of the service is a great worry for the priest taking the service, but it proves to be a test for the congregation.This is Alan Bennett at his absolute best with an e...

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.Thinking Betty was in the bath Graham was watching a late-night programme on Channel 4 called Footballers with Their Shirts Off *when she unexpectedly came in on the trail of the hairdryer.'I didn't know you were interested in football,' said Betty.*No one must ever find out that Graham is 'not the marryi...

Like everything Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. They all have brilliant twists, are immensely entertaining and highly moral. And all are modern classics.The Laying on of HandsThe painfully observant account of a memorial service for a masseur to the famous.The Clothes They Stood Up InThe comic tale of an elderly couple's trials after their flat is stripped ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2022'Sparklingly sardonic ... There really is no one like Bennett' Independent'Filled with elegiac memories and literary gossip ... a major National Treasure' Lynn Barber4 March. HMQ pictured in the paper at an investiture wearing gloves, presumably as a precaution against Coronavirus. But not just gloves; these are almost gauntlets. I ho...

Alan Bennett's second story. This time, set in the 1970s, in classic Bennett country, Yorkshire. 'On the many occasions Midgley had killed his father, death had always come easily. He died promptly, painlessly and without a struggle. Looking back, Midgley could see that even in these imagined deaths he had failed his father. It was not like him to die like that. Nor did he.' Midgley is determined to deny his father a last occasion to be disappointed in him. He will do the right thing and s...

Autobiography has been an essential element of the London Review of Books since its founding in 1979. This volume collects many outstanding pieces of memoir that first appeared in the LRB’s pages.Here, Lorna Sage remembers growing up with her grandfather during the Second World War, Jenny Diski imagines her own burial, and Hilary Mantel tackles a strongman on her hospital bed. Julian Barnes writes about not getting the Booker Prize. Andrew O’Hagan confesses to his...