MARY QUANT IS FASHION.Not many names epitomise an era, but Mary Quant is one such name. Her life, her ideas and her style touched everyone.Most people connect Mary with one thing - the mini skirt - that ground-breaking design that is as potent now as it was when it first appeared in the early sixties. But her influence carried way beyond those early, frenetic black-and-white years. This, Mary Quant's memoir, is written in her own inimitable...

The autobiography of Mary Quant―the inventor of the miniskirt―was originally published in 1966 at the height of Swinging London. After opening her groundbreaking boutique Bazaar on London’s King’s Road in 1955, Quant soared to international fame with her brand of witty style that fitted perfectly with modern city life. She was at the forefront of fashion’s democratization―seeking to eliminate snobbery and “make fashionable clothes available to everyone. Her joyful, evocative autobiography ...

Barbara Hulanicki tells the story of the rise and fall of the tiny, energetic boutique that grew into a vast emporium and epitomised Swinging London. The Biba store became an icon of hip 1960s and 1970s London and a hangout for artists, film stars and musicians, including the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Twiggy, Brigitte Bardot and Marianne Faithfull. But in the early 1970s Hulanicki and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon lost control after a series of bitter boardroom struggles and for Barbar...

Do you remember Pathé News? Taking the train to the seaside? The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers? Knitted bathing costumes? Then the chances are you were born in or around 1950.To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age. But for those born around then, this era of childhood feels like yesterday. This delightful collection of photographic memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade; they include p...

Do you remember Beatlemania? Radio Caroline? Mods and Rockers? The very first miniskirts? Then the chances are you were born in the or around 1960.To the young people of today, the 1960s seems like another age. But for those who grew up in this decade, school life, 'mod' fashions and sixties pop music are still fresh in their minds. From James Bond to Sindy dolls and playing hopscotch in the street, life was very different to how it is now. After the tough and frug...

Nancy Wake, nicknamed 'the white mouse' for her ability to evade capture, tells her own story. As the Gestapo's most wanted person, and one of the most highly decorated servicewomen of the war, it's a story worth telling.After living and working in Paris in the 1930's, Nancy married a wealthy Frenchman and settled in Marseilles. Her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and the invasion of France. Her life shattered, Nancy joined the French resistance and, later, began work wi...

Humorous travel book about moving to France from Wales by IPPY, Royal Dragonfly and Global Ebook Award Winner Jean Gill'Laugh out loud ... such a vivid picture of the fields of lavender, sunflowers and olive trees that you could almost be there with her.' - Living France MagazineThe true scents of Provence? Lavender, thyme and septic tank.There are hundreds of interesting things you can do in a bath but washi...

This enchanting collection brings together hundreds of his wittiest and wickedest quips as a record of all that was best about this lovable, infuriatingly conceited, wildly funny, and brilliantly talented Englishman.

'Maeve's Times is funny and clever and kind, which are excellent qualities in both books and people' Irish Times'As someone who fell off a chair not long ago trying to hear what they were saying at the next table in a restaurant, I suppose I am obsessively interested in what some might consider the trivia of other people's lives.'Maeve Binchy is well known for her bestselling novels, but for many years Maeve was a journalist. From 'The Stu...

The long awaited story of one of Britain’s greatest comic legends.'Some people walk on stage and the audience warms to them. You can't explain it, and you shouldn't try. It's an arrogant assumption to say you 'decide' to become a comedian. The audience decides for you.' Eric Sykes, December 2001From his early days writing scripts for Bill Fraser and Frankie Howerd through decades of British radio and television comedy – ‘Educating Archie’, ‘Sykes And A …’, ‘Curry and Chips’...

The quintessential suave hero, Roger Moore has had an extraordinary career that has spanned seven decades, from early television to the golden age of Hollywood and on to international superstardom. Dashing, handsome and every inch the archetypal English gentleman, he is unforgettable as The Saint, as Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders! and, of course, as James Bond, making seven blockbusting films as arguably the most debonair of the 007s. For the first time, Roger shares his r...

This fascinating collection of letters traces the exchanges between a young subaltern on the front, Gerard ‘Ged’ Garvin, and his mother and father at home. Correspondence was eagerly awaited by all. Ged savored letters home like ‘Jim Hawkins trickling the doubloons through his fingers’. Equally, his mother and father at home were always fearful that each letter they received would be the last. In a letter J. L. Garvin sent to his son 21 July 1916 he wrote: ‘Of course there’s no fresh lette...