War hero and '60s Soho doyen Bruce Copp has lived a unique life. With an address book brimming with celebrity names and numbers, he swam regularly with a James Bond, dined with Charlie Chaplin, hung out with Lenny Bruce and spent an unforgettable night with Marlene Dietrich. A reluctant hero, he served in the army throughout the Second World War where he dealt with prejudices towards homosexuality, witnessed the deaths of his comrades and tried to commit suicide by walking...

I can hardly believe that it is more than half a century since I first stepped on to the stage of the Old Vic Theatre and into a way of life that has brought me the most rewarding professional relationships and friendships. I cannot imagine now ever doing anything else with my life except acting…" – Judi DenchFrom London's glittering West End to Broadway's bright lights, from her Academy Award-winning role as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love to "M" in the James Bond films...

The autobiography of one of Britain's most beloved figures, last of the Mitford sisters, renowned writer and social figure.Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood of six daughters and one son that included the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote, when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir Wait for Me! chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccen...

When John Thaw, star of The Sweeney and Inspector Morse, died from cancer in 2002, a nation lost one of its finest actors and Sheila Hancock lost a beloved husband. In this unique double biography she chronicles their lives - personal and professional, together and apart.John Thaw was born in Manchester, the son of a lorry driver. When he arrived at RADA on a scholarship he felt an outsider. In fact his timing was perfect: it was the sixties and television was beg...

Vibrant and candid memoirs of the late, great British character actor, Pete Postlethwaite.After training as a teacher, Pete Postlethwaite started his acting career at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher and Julie Walters. After routine early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as THE PROFESSIONALS, Postlethwaite's first success came with the acclaimed British film DISTANT VOICES,...

The streets of London flourish like possibly no other city on earth, with stories from its rich history, stories of death - fire - disease, of riots, and grisly murders, but also of tales of hope, happiness, determination and success. Behind every story and every street however, are the people who lived, worked, played, and even murdered there. Did you know for instance that when Great Scotland Yard was being built in 1890, that the dismembered body of a woman was discovered by workmen, du...

Kate by Claudia Joseph, is a true-life fairy tale: the biography of Kate Middleton, Princess-in-Waiting, who is quite possibly poised to be the next Queen of England. The extraordinary Cinderella story of the beautiful, charming, sophisticated young woman who has snagged Britain’s most eligible bachelor, Prince William, Kate is a must-read for all the many followers of the lives, loves, and remarkable turns of the royal family of Great Britain.This definitive biography goes behind ...

This account of British life in the wake of World War I is "social history at its very best . . . insightful and utterly absorbing" ( Minneapolis Star-Tribune).As the euphoria of Armistice Day in 1918 quickly subsided, there was no denying the carnage that the Great War had left in its wake. Grief and shock overwhelmed the psyche of the British people—but from their despair, new life would slowly emerge.For veterans with faces demolished in the tre...

Star of stage, screen and television, and one of only two people to be awarded two Knighthoods, Sir Derek Jacobi is one of Britain’s most distinguished actors.‘If you want to be an actor, don’t. If you need to be an actor, do.’The world of theatre could not have been further from Derek’s childhood: an only child, born in Leytonstone, London. With his father a department store manager and his mother a secretary, his was very much a working class background. But nonetheless D...

Harry H. Corbett rose from the slums of Manchester to become one of the best-known television stars of the 20th century. Having left home as a 17-year-old Royal Marine during the Second World War, he fought in the North Atlantic and the jungles of the Pacific and witnessed first-hand the devastation wrought by the Hiroshima bomb. On his return home he wandered into the local theatre company and landed a starring role – The Front Legs of the Cow. Soon becoming a le...

In this bestseller, thirty-six Canadian war brides recount their early lives, their involvement in wartime duties, the magical/funny moments when they met their Canadian husbands-to-be and their journeys from Britain to Canada. The stories convey courage and humour: qualities that carried the war brides through the difficult war years and that contribute to lively reading today. Includes fifty photos.