Nigel Rees presents a nostalgic and witty guide to wartime catchphrases, from the now ubiquitous 'Keep Calm and Carry On' to lesser-known gems such as 'lions led by donkeys'.Following his hugely popular survey of domestic sayings, More Tea Vicar?, Rees returns with a witty and fascinating examination of the catchphrases that saw us through wartime Britain and are still relevant in times of crisis today.Including domestic phrases of the time, propaganda, and slang d...

Unravel the meaning, origin, and usage of over 6,000 phrases from book and film titles, idioms and cliches, to nicknames, slogans and quotations with this modern and entertaining guide to wonderful phrases by one of the world’s best-known wordsmiths.The ideal replacement or complement to that tatty old copy of Brewer's Phrase and Fable most of us have about the house, A Word in Your Shell-Like is an entertaining look at both familiar and unfamiliar phrases by one of the key world a...

The last ever episodes of the acclaimed quotations quiz, devised and introduced by Nigel Rees - including the historic 500th showEver since 1976, Quote... Unquote chairman Nigel Rees has quizzed a host of well-known personalities on the origins of popular sayings, both familiar and obscure, and encouraged them to contribute their own quotes, anecdotes and catchphrases. But - to paraphrase Chaucer - all good things must come to an end, and with Series 57, t...

The complete series of the vintage BBC Radio variety showRadio legends Kenneth Williams (Beyond Our Ken, Hancock’s Half Hour) and Ted Ray (Ray’s a Laugh) join forces for this quickfire mix of characters, songs and sketches, first broadcast on Radio 2 in 1974. Accompanied by Quote… Unquote’s Nigel Rees and veteran actress/comedian Miriam Margolyes, they cross their comedy ...

Now available together for the first time are all six episodes from the first series of classic comedy from David Renwick (who went on to write One Foot in the Grave), Andrew Marshall (who later wrote 2point4 Children) – and Eric Pode (of Croydon). Includes: 'Peel Bananas The Burkiss Way’, in which you can learn the best techniques for peeling bananas and how to get people off lightly; 'Pass Examinations The Burkiss Way’, which teaches you how to astound your friends by a...

This exclusive compilation was first published to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 'Quote, Unquote'. It takes a fond look a the show in which celebrity guests are quizzed about quotations, famous and obscure, and invited to contribute their own quotes and anecdotes. From identifying Shakespearean dialogue, attributing witty last words and putting names to famous one-liners, panellists go on to discuss everything that could possibly fall between two quotation marks, from eavesdropping ...

The Sunday Times BestsellerAll Michael Parkinson really wanted to do was play cricket for Yorkshire and England. However, he soon realised that to be paid to watch films, football and cricket would be the best way to spend life, and he became a journalist.Television beckoned and for three decades Parkinson interviewed the movers and shakers of the late twentieth century, making his television programme the must-see event of the week. In singing wit...

101 chance meetings, juxtaposing the famous and the infamous, the artistic and the philistine, the pompous and the comical, the snobbish and the vulgar, each 1,001 words long, and with a time span stretching from the 19th century to the 21st.Life is made up of individuals meeting one another. They speak, or don’t speak. They get on, or don’t get on. They make agreements, which they either hold to or ignore. They laugh, they cry, they are excited, they are indifferent, they share se...

Already a bestseller, this is a wonderfully entertaining collection of Alan Bennett's prose writings. Writing Home brings together diaries, reminiscences and reviews to give us a unique and unforgettable portrait of one of England's leading playwrights. As a memoir it covers the production of his very first play, Forty Years On, which starred John Gieldgud. His television series 'Talking Heads' has become a modern-day classic; as part of the 1960s revue 'Beyond the Fringe...

A monograph of Golden Age detective fiction from H.R.F. Keating, doyen of classic detective writers.Murder Must Appetize is an affectionate return to the halcyon days of the detective story when Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey were young and a touch of arsenic was still the ultimate deterrent. Apart from old friends like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie, we meet the less well remembered pioneers of detective fiction, including E.C.R. Lorac (alias for Edith Caroli...

This is a diary packed with famous names and extraordinary stories. It is also rich in incidental detail and wonderful observation, providing both a compelling record of five remarkable decades and a revealing, often hilarious and sometimes moving account of Gyles Brandreth's unusual life -- as a child living in London in the 'swinging' sixties, as a jumper-wearing TV presenter, as an MP and government whip, and as a royal biographer who has enjoyed unique access to the Queen and her famil...

The magnificent, hilarious autobiography of the man who created the immortal Reginald Perrin.As a small boy David Nobbs survived the Second World War unscathed, until his bedroom ceiling fell on him when the last bomb to be dropped on Britain by the Germans landed near his home. It was the nearest he came to the war, but National Service would later make him one of Britain's most reluctant soldiers. It was an unforgettable and often unpleasant experience.As a struggling wri...