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Written by Bill Hick's lifelong friend, producer, and co-creator, Kevin Booth offers the inside story into the man who was only along for the ride for a tragically short time, yet left an indelible mark on comedy enthusiasts and freethinkers everywhere.Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution offers a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the life of one of Britain's most loved US comedians. Adored in the UK for his unique style of savage, hilarious comedy, the one person who knew him inside and out tells of a man whose life was just as impassioned and off-the-wall as his comedy.Even back at High School, in Houston, Texas, Kevin was Bill's co-conspirator, as they sneaked out of Bill's strict Baptist home at night, and headed for the Comedy Workshop, where at the age of fourteen, Bill was going down a storm.They virtually shared every experience – from magic mushrooms to girls, but it was their music and their vision of comedy, which bound them so closely together. Kevin produced, engineered and performed on many of Bill's recordings, and it is largely due to him, that so much of Bill's comedy is readily available on CD and video.Michael Bertin, a hugely talented author from Austin, Texas, is co-writing Kevin's fly-on-the-wall biography of Bill Hicks.

Originally published in 1997 and now available as an ebook.This edition does not include illustrations.Eddie Irvine is a breath of fresh air in the serious world of Formula 1.Selected to drive for Ferrari alongside double world champion Michael Schumacher, the 1996 season proved to be a frustrating period for the Irishman as he struggled to get to grips with a temperamental car and live up to the high expectations of the media and the tifosi.But as he demonstrates in his fascinating insight into the world of Ferrari, Irvine's flamboyant personality and aggressive driving style meant he was never far from the action, both on and off the track.Irvine lifts the lid on his attempts to prove his worth at Ferrari and recalls all the crashes and crises, thrills and spills of the 1997 season.

102 Boulevard Haussmann, an elegant address in Paris’s eighth arrondissement.Upstairs lives Madame Williams, with her second husband and her harp. Downstairs lives Marcel Proust, trying to write In Search of Lost Time, but all too often distracted by the noise from upstairs.Written by Proust to Madame Williams between the years 1909 and 1919, this precious discovery of letters reveals the comings and goings of a Paris building, as seen through Proust’s eyes. You’ll read of the effort required to live peacefully with annoying neighbours; of the sadness of losing friends in the war; of concerts and music and writing; and, above all, of a growing, touching friendship between two lonely souls.

The bestselling “Not Without My Sister”, detailing the incredible story of three siblings battling to escape the infamous Children of God cult, is for the first time combined with “Born Into The Children of God”, the shocking but inspiring account of Natacha Tormey, who underwent similar horrors.Follow the true stories of Juliana, Celeste and Kristina in “Not Without My Sister” as they struggled to flee from a community which denied them formal schooling, mercilessly beat them for unpredictable crimes and even forced them to watch and mimic orgies. When the girls’ mother manages to escape with Kristina, she is determined to return to the place of torture to free her remaining sisters – but will they all make it out together?In “Born Into the Children of God”, Natacha Tormey is exposed to similar terrors, torn away from her parents to be beaten daily and forced to sing and dance for entertainment in prisons and malls. When Natacha managed to escape at the age of 18, she found herself struggling to come to terms with the world she had left behind, yet unable to fit into the life she had run to. Shocking, moving, but ultimately inspiring, this is Natacha’s full story; both a personal tale of trauma and recovery, and an exposé of the secret world of abuse hidden behind commune walls.

Imagine a sisterhood – across all creeds and cultures. An unspoken agreement that we, as women, will support and encourage one another. That we will remember we don't know what struggles each of us may be facing elsewhere in our lives and so we will assume that each of us is doing our best…So begins WE: an inspiring, empowering and provocative manifesto for change. Change which we can all effect, one woman at a time. Change which provides a crucial and timely antidote to the 'have-it-all' Superwoman culture and instead focusses on what will make each and every one of us happier and more free. Change which provides an answer to the nagging sense of 'is that it?' that almost all of us can succumb to when we wake in the dead of night.Written by actress Gillian Anderson and journalist Jennifer Nadel – two friends who for the last decade have stumbled along together, learning, failing, crying, laughing and trying again – WE is a not a theoretical treatise but instead a rallying cry to create a life that has greater meaning and purpose. Combining tools which are practical, psychological and spiritual, it is both a process and a vision for a more fulfilling way of living. And a truly inspiring vision of a happier, more emotionally rewarding future we can all create together…

The truth behind the spectacular rise and fall of a pop legend in his own words.For three years the Goss twins, Luke and Matt, had the world at their feet. Their records ripped to the top of the charts, they filled concert halls and were mobbed wherever they went.Their fall was as fast and spectacular as their rise. From being pop’s golden boys they became the band that everyone loved to hate, amidst spectacular rumours of bankruptcy and media manipulation.What went wrong? In this compelling book Luke Goss tells the whole incredible story, including:• The million-point contract that left the band broke.• The ‘weird unreality’ of going from unknown to superstar almost overnight.• So-called ‘friends’ who turned their backs as soon as the bubble burst.It’s a cautionary tale for anyone aspiring to pop stardom, it is a saga of hurt and heartache, and, above all, it is a tribute to the family and friends – including Matt – who have stood by him through those frenetic years.It is, as Luke says, the laying to rest of a nightmare.

The incredible, moving and hilarious story of Cheeta the Chimp, simian star of the big screen, on a behind-the-scenes romp through the golden years of Hollywood.As heard on Radio 4, starring Jon Malcovich and Julian Sands.The greatest Hollywood Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller, died in 1984. His coffin was lowered into the ground to the recorded sounds of his famous jungle call. Maureen O'Sullivan, his Jane, died in 1998. Weissmuller's son, who first played Boy in the 1939 film Tarzan finds a Mate, has gone too. But Cheeta the Chimp, who starred with them all, is alive and well, retired in Palm Springs. At the incredible age of seventy-five, he is by far the oldest living chimpanzee ever recorded.Now, in his own words, Cheeta (aka Jiggs) finally tells his extraordinary story.He was just a baby when snatched from the jungle of Liberia in 1932, by the great animal importer Henry Trefflich, who went on to supply NASA with its 'Monkeys for Space' programme. That same year, Cheeta appeared in Tarzan the Ape Man, and in 1934 Tarzan and His Mate, in which he famously stole the clothes from a naked O'Sullivan, dripping wet from an underwater swimming scene with Weissmuller. Other Tarzan films followed until Cheeta finally retired from the big screen after the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle with Rex Harrison, whose finger he accidentally bit backstage while being offered a placatory banana.Cheeta tells it all, a life lived with the stars, a monkey stolen from deepest Africa forced to make a living in the fake jungles of Hollywood. He tells us too of his journey beyond the screen: his struggle with drink and addiction to cigars; his breakthrough with a radical new form of abstract painting, 'Apeism'; his touching relationship with his retired nightclub-performing grandson Jeeta, now a considerable artist in his own right; his fondness for hamburgers and his battle in later life with diabetes; and, through thick and thin, carer Dan Westfall, his loving companion who has helped this magnificent monkey come to terms with his peculiar past.Funny, moving, searingly honest, Cheeta transports us back to a lost Hollywood. He is a real star, and this the greatest celebrity memoir of recent times.

A fully updated edition of Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative, the first major biography of David Cameron, and now covering his first years as Prime Minister and leader of the coalition government.David Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister in a generation, and also the first leader of a coalition government for eighty years. But what is the reality behind his brand of repackaged Conservatism? And who is Cameron the man?Here, for the first time, is an independent examination of the ‘saviour’ of the Conservative Party and the life that brought him to Number 10 Downing Street. Based on extensive interviews with his closest friends, his most senior lieutenants and his critics, it traces his meteoric rise from an idyllic, privileged childhood, to the heart of government by the age of 25, to leader of the country.Critical and insightful by turn, this updated edition now covers Cameron’s first year as Prime Minister – a time that has seen unprecedented scandal in the political world, as well as challenges unique to the Conservative leader.

June Thomson and Giselle Ross are inextricably linked by two unspeakable acts of evil. On the same day, a few miles apart, their estranged husbands slaughtered their children. The murders were not driven by rage, or committed in moments of madness. They were planned, and carried out with chilling precision, to inflict the worst pain imaginable.June and Giselle did not know each other. Tragedy is all that binds them; they were destined to come together as ‘sisters’, united by pain, grief and a sense of loss so immense that it would drive both to the brink of madness.June’s life with Rab Thomson had been a dark and turbulent existence, characterised by mental torture, physical violence and rape. Giselle’s relationship with Ashok Kalyanjee had been a strange and distant affair, of lives spent apart before, during and after marriage.But both relationships had produced two beautiful children, and the women believed that their misery was in the past. Both mothers believed it was important to allow the fathers’ access to their children. On that fateful Saturday in May 2008, neither could have conceived that the men they had once loved would do anything to harm their children. But they were wrong, so terribly wrong.Nothing can bring their children back. But June and Giselle have one solitary comfort: they are no longer alone. Their lives may have been torn apart, but they have each other. Together, they are stronger.This is the story of their parallel journeys: of the dreadful days before, during, and after the murders of their children. Told in their own words, with searing honesty of their pain, and guilt, it is a story of endurance, friendship, and survival against the odds. It is not a story for the faint hearted, but it is a story that must be told, for in the end, it is a testament to the human spirit.

‘Lives that Never Grow Old’ is a wonderful series– edited by Richard Holmes – that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Every book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive.Zélide lived in her father’s moated castle in Holland, like a fairytale princess in a tower. She was the clever, sexy, mercurial young Dutch blue-stocking with whom Boswell fell disastrously in love in 1764. The rest of Zélide’s story was unknown until the brilliant young Boswell scholar Geoffrey Scott pieced it together from her intimate letters and essays.Subsequent affairs with a cynical cavalry officer, a celebrated but vacillating writer (aptly named Benjamin Constant), and a thoroughly reliable music master, took her eventually to another fairytale mansion in Switzerland. This tender, funny, faintly salacious portrait of a ‘belle-esprit’ is one of the most exquisite biographical miniatures ever written.

For the first time, more than 15 years after four boys from London were first thrown together to form what would go on to become one of the most successful and infamous groups of the boyband era, Lee, Antony, Duncan and Simon tell their full, no-holds-barred story in their own inimitable words.Blue first rose to fame and mega-stardom in 2001. With 3 UK Number 1 Platinum-selling albums, 2 Brit Awards and 16 million records to their name, they quickly became the crushes of choice for the noughties generation.But their tendency to say exactly what they think, wear their hearts on their sleeves and court controversy (usually unintentionally) has meant that they’ve rarely left the limelight, or public hearts and minds, since.Blue: All Rise: Our Story is the boys’ intimate tell-all account charting the highs and the lows of their incredible career, the stories behind the headlines, and our favourite face-palm-worthy Blue moments. With explosive new reveals, never-before-seen photos, and all the latest updates – including Simon’s engagement and his struggle with depression, Lee’s brush with cancer, Duncan’s devastation at the passing away of his best friend, original It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and how Antony’s adapting to fatherhood all over again, this is the story every 2000s teen has been waiting for, from four lads who’ve come out the other side older, wiser and closer than ever.