Biographies

From declaring my love to Vanessa Redgrave to being fed cockroaches by Steve Buscemi, from turnip-based comedy with Blackadder to being farted on by Arnold Schwarzenegger, from Graham Norton's sofa to Alan Cumming's campervan, my life has been (and continues to be) a riotous adventure. Oh Miriam! has been such a constant refrain in my life, said in all kinds of tones - laughs, surprised gasps and orgasmic sighs (I'm hoping for all those from you as you read on!) - that it had to be the title of this book. And with a castlist that stretches from Churchill to di Caprio, Dahl to Dietrich, Princess Margaret to Maggie Smith, I've got so much more to tell you and so much more to say. My chapters range from 'How to Stay Married' to 'Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down'. Discover how to break the thickest conversational ice; why swearing is actually good for you (though not on the Today programme); the unexpected things I actually learnt at school and what my Spice Girl name would be. Not to mention my Tale of the Unexpected and my very own Vagina Monologue. Buckle up and join me on another unforgettable adventure, but this time through my heart and head...  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781399803359 • Author: Miriam Margolyes • Publisher:  John Murray • Format:  Hardback • Pages:  336 • Dimensions: 15.29 x 1.78 x 23.39 cm 

Welcome back to Clarkson's Farm. At the end of Jeremy's first year in the tractor's driving seat, Diddly Squat farm rewarded him with a profit of just £144. So, while he's the first to admit that he's still only a 'trainee farmer'*, there is clearly still work to be done. Because while he's mastered the art of moaning about nearly everything, some of the other attributes required of a successful farmer prove more of a challenge. Did you know that loading a grain trailer was more demanding than flying an Apache gunship? Or that cows were more dangerous than motor-racing? Or whether would have been easier to get planning permission to build a nuclear power station than to turn an old barn into a farm restaurant? But if the council planning department and the local red trouser brigade seem determined to frustrate his schemes at every turn, at least he's got Lisa, Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald, his dry-stone-walling Head of Security to see him through.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9780241695791 • Author:  Jeremy Clarkson • Publisher:  Michael Joseph • Format:  Hardback • Pages:  240 • Dimensions:  15.24 x 1.3 x 23.5 cm

January, 1945. 14-year-old Moshe Kessler steps off the train at Buchenwald concentration camp. Having endured the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, lost touch with his entire family, and survived the death march in the freezing European winter, he has seen more than his share of tragedy. Moshe knows only one thing about Buchenwald. Everyone knows it. If you want to survive, you have to get to Block 66. The Germans are cruel and determined - but they are not prepared for Buchenwald's secret resistance, which rises up with one mission only: to protect the camp's children from harm. This is the incredible true story of Moshe Kessler and Block 66 - the children's block that was at the forefront of one of the most shocking and inspiring stories of Holocaust survival. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781802472509 • Author:  Limor Regev • Publisher:  Ad Lib Publishers Ltd • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  244 • Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm

Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East'. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives. The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781800961128 • Author: Otto Rosenberg • Publisher: Monoray • Format: Paperback • Pages: 240 • Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2.2cm

"My life will always be in danger. My beautiful sister Banaz Mahmod was murdered in an ‘honour killing’ ordered by our father and uncle. If those evil men find me, they will kill me too." Bekhal Mahmod was one of six siblings from a Sunni Muslim family in Iraqi Kurdistan who sought a new life as asylum seekers and arrived in London in 1998. When Bekhal's father tried to force her into an arranged marriage at 15, she ran away. This caused her father to ‘lose respect’ within the Kurdish community and Bekhal became the target of an honour killing and her younger sisters Banaz and Payzee were quickly married off to restore the family's reputation. When Banaz left her husband, claiming he'd beaten and raped her, Mahmod decided this 'shame' to the family meant Banaz must die. Within weeks, she had vanished. Her body was finally discovered, crammed into a suitcase and buried in a garden in Birmingham. Banaz, age 20, had been raped and killed in a sickening plot orchestrated by her father and uncle. Still fearing for her own life, Bekhal bravely faced her father and uncle in court - making her the first female in British legal history to give evidence against family members in an honour killing trial - and won justice for her beloved sister Banaz. Bekhal now has a new identity after entering the police witness protection programme. She lives in terror of her father’s release from jail. This is her story. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781913543051 • Author:  Bekhal Mahmod  • Publisher:  Ad Lib Publishers Ltd • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  240 • Dimensions: 12.7 x 2.03 x 19.69 cm

A story of astonishing resilience and compassion... In 1943, the Dutch champion boxer, Leen Sanders, was sent to Auschwitz. His wife and children were put to death while he was sent 'to the left' with the others who were fit enough for labour. Recognised by an SS officer, he was earmarked for a 'privileged' post in the kitchens in exchange for weekly boxing matches for the entertainment of the Nazi guards. From there, he enacted his resistance to their limitless cruelty. With great risk and danger to his own life, Leen stole, concealed and smuggled food and clothing from SS nursing units for years to alleviate the unbearable suffering of the prisoners in need. He also regularly supplied extra food to the Dutch women in Dr. Mengele's experiment, Block 10. To his fellow Jews in the camp, he acted as a rescuer, leader and role model, defending them even on their bitter death march to Dachau towards the end of the war.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781788404303 • Author:  Erik Brouwer  • Publisher:  Cassell • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  336 • Dimensions:  12.7 x 1.91 x 20.32 cm

I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed, ignored and orphaned. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim – that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix – a work in progress. This is my story…” Product Information: • ISBN: 9781914451003 • Author: Shy Keenan • Publisher: Mardle Books • Format: Paperback • Pages: 311 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 cm

Online Only! Get more for less with The Work’s expertly hand-picked Book Bundles. These are a collection of great quality products, grouped together to give you amazing value. Welcome to Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm! This incredible three-book bundle includes Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat: ‘Til The Cows Come Home and his latest release, Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly!

All the varieties of power – star, political, sexual, criminal and emotional – are on show in this definitive, untold story of Frank Sinatra and the Mafia. Drawing on an enormous archive of previously unseen records held by international law agencies, the FBI, the CIA and big-city police departments, Rothmiller and Thompson reveal Sinatra’s pact with the Mob in shocking detail. With additional evidence from decades of investigations and testimony, they expose Sinatra’s lifelong association with the Mafia, which he always denied, and its deadly collateral damage. This revelatory showstopper is a wild dance made coherent by intelligent choreography. Sinatra may not have been an actual made man, but the Mafia certainly made him. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781802470840 • Author:  Mike Rothmiller & Douglas Thompson   • Publisher:  Ad Lib Publishers • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  256 • Dimensions: 12.8 x 19.8cm

US President John F. Kennedy's killing in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963, sent a shockwave around the world. The charismatic young Democrat was seen as a beacon of hope in the West, but his liberal reforming policies had made him many powerful enemies at home. For sixty years, numerous theories have swirled around this key event in American - and world - history. Yet whatever the conclusions of the official Warren Report - that the President had been assassinated by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald - many people doubt that to be true. Indeed, President Nixon later admitted on tape that the report was 'a hoax committed on the American people.' John Hughes-Wilson, a former colonel in British Intelligence, has sifted through the millions of words and thousands of pieces of evidence, to put together an intelligence assessment of what really happened that dreadful high noon in Dallas in 1963. Reading this astounding book, no one can be in any doubt that JFK's death was not at the hands of a lone deranged gunman, but a deadly plot to remove a President who threatened vested interests at home and abroad.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781789467376 • Author:  John Hughes-Wilson • Publisher:  John Blake • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  368 • Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.1 x 19.8 cm   

Alan Rickman remains one of the most beloved actors of all time across almost every genre, from his breakout role as Die Hard's villainous Hans Gruber to his heart-wrenching run as Professor Severus Snape, and beyond. His air of dignity, his sonorous voice and the knowing wit he brought to each role continue to captivate new audiences today. But Rickman's artistry wasn't confined to just his performances. Rickman's writing details the extraordinary and the ordinary in a way that is anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid. He takes us behind the scenes on films and plays ranging from Sense & Sensibility, the Harry Potter series, Private Lives, My Name Is Rachel Corrie and many more. The diaries run from 1993 to his death in 2016 and offer insight into both a public and private life. Here is Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveller, the fan, the director, the enthusiast: in short, the real Alan Rickman. Here is a life fully lived, all detailed in intimate and characteristically plain-spoken prose. Reading the diaries is like listening to Rickman chatting to a close friend.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781838854805 • Author:  Alan Rickman  • Publisher:  Canongate Books • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  496 • Dimensions:  12.9 x 3 x 19.8 cm

In 1974, Liz Harvie – born Claire Elaine Watts – was given up for adoption by her birth mother Yvonne. Claire was just eight weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in – and renamed her Elizabeth.  Although brought up in a ‘perfect’ household, the emotional – and physical – trauma of being taken from her biological mother would never leave Liz. She constantly wondered: what does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me? But whenever Liz voiced such questions, she invariably received the same response: “Your birth parents were not married. They couldn’t look after you.” Years later, aged twenty-eight, Liz reconnected with her birth mother – and finally learned the shocking truth surrounding her adoption. Yvonne had not abandoned her daughter. A social worker had snatched her ten-day-old baby from her arms. “I didn’t even get a final cuddle. She just took her away from me,” says Yvonne.  Liz became one of 185,000 victims of forced adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales. As a young unmarried mum, Yvonne was deemed unfit as a parent by the government, churches, adoption agencies and her father – and made to give up her child against her will.  Although reunited, Liz and Yvonne are still struggling to cope with the agony resulting from their devastating separation. As Liz says, “We can’t just skip hand in hand into the sunset. The trauma of being a forced adoptee is lifelong.”  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781837700462 • Author:  Liz Harvie & Eve Hatton • Publisher:  Mardle Books • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  240 • Dimensions:  19.9 x 2.4 x 12.9 cm

My mother once said to me, ‘I wish you could feel the way I do for eighteen seconds. Just eighteen seconds, so you’d know how awful it is.’ I thought about it. Realised we could all learn from being in another person’s head for eighteen seconds. Eighteen seconds inside Grandma Roberts’ head as she sat alone with her evening cup of tea, us girls upstairs in bed. Eighteen seconds inside one-year-old Colin’s head when he woke up in a foster home without his family. Eighteen seconds inside the head of a girl waiting for her bedroom door to open. Writer, Louise Beech, looks back on the events that led to the day her mother wrote down her last words, then jumped off the Humber Bridge. She missed witnessing the horror herself by minutes. Louise recounts the pain and trauma of her childhood alongside her love for her siblings with a delicious dark humour and a profound voice of hope for the future. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781837700202 • Author:  Louise Beech  • Publisher:  Mardle Book • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  240 • Dimensions: 12.7 x 2.03 x 19.69 cm

Jeremy Clarkson shares his opinions on just about everything in The World According to Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson has seen rather more of the world than most. He has, as they say, been around a bit. And as a result, he's got one or two things to tell us about how it all works; and being Jeremy Clarkson he's not about to voice them quietly, humbly and without great dollops of humour. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781405965170 • Author:  Jeremy Clarkson • Publisher:  Penguin • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  327 • Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.12 cm

Letters from Serial Killers is a unique study of the criminal mind based on the author's extensive correspondence with convicted serial murderers.  Such a collection is extremely rare, and among the killers whose correspondence is examined are: Arthur John Shawcross, aka 'The Genesee River Killer'; Phillip Carl Jablonski, aka 'The Death Row Teddy'; Melanie Lyn McGuire, aka 'The Ice Queen'; Harvey 'The Hammer' Louis Carignan, aka 'The Want-ad Killer'; Ian Stewart Brady, aka 'The Moors Murderer'; Hal Karen and Ronald 'Butch' Joseph DeFeo Jr, aka 'The Amityville Horror'; Gary Ray Bowles, aka 'The I-95 Killer';John 'J.R.' Edward Robinson, aka 'The Slavemaster' Letters from Serial Killers is Christopher Berry-Dee at his steeliest best - exploring the downright creepy correspondence with murderers, serial killers and psychopaths behind bars, with exclusive scans of letters and eerily decorated envelopes. A must-have for fans of the series, based on a collection that will eventually be bequeathed to the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit at its headquarters at Quantico, Virginia.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781789466584 • Author:  Christopher Berry-Dee • Publisher:  John Blake • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  336 • Dimensions:   33.5 x 19.9 x 3.6 cm

What does it take to catch a predator who has terrorised southeast England for over fifteen years? Delroy Grant - dubbed the Night Stalker - was one of the nation's most wanted men, a shocking sex predator. During his seventeen-year reign of fear, he established a clear MO. Visit a target at night. Remove a window pane and slide in. Unscrew the lightbulbs. Cut the power. Rip out the telephone wires. Tiptoe to the bedroom. Wake the victim by shining a torch in their eyes. What followed was often unspeakable. When SIO Colin Sutton was drafted into the case, Grant had been at large for over a decade. Stepping up where others had failed, he began the determined, relentless police work that had marked the end for infamous serial killer Levi Bellfield. Case by case, clue by clue. Night Stalker is the chilling true story of one of the most testing manhunts the Metropolitan Police have ever undertaken. It is a glimpse into the heart of darkness - and into the mind and work of the brilliant detective who brought one of London's most feared monsters to justice. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781789462258 • Author: Colin Sutton • Publisher: John Blake • Format: Paperback • Pages: 304 • Dimensions: 19.5 x 13 x 2 cm

Fred and Rose West are virtually unique in British criminal history: a husband and wife who loved and killed together. During their long relationship, the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their daughter. What was left of Fred West's eight-year-old stepdaughter was dug up from under the Wests' previous Gloucester home; his first wife and nanny were buried in open country. Most victims had been decapitated and dismembered, their remains showing signs of sexual torture. These twelve are just the ones police found when the Wests were arrested in 1994. There may be more whose bones have not been located... Howard Sounes broke the first major story about the Wests as a journalist, and covered the murder trial of Rosemary West, before writing Fred & Rose, the definitive account of this infamous case. Beginning with Fred's and Rose's bizarre childhoods, Sounes charts their lives and crimes in forensic detail, creating a fascinating and truly frightening account of a marriage soaked in blood. Product Information:  • ISBN:  9780751577501 • Author: Howard Sounes • Publisher:  Little, Brown • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  392 • Dimensions: 12.8 x 19.8 x 2.7 cm

Experience the K-Pop phenomenon of BTS in this best-selling Ultimate Fan Book! BTS are much more than just a group of seven talented individuals, they are a band acclaimed for their record-smashing, barrier-breaking, trend-setting dance-pop and hip-hop tunes and personal philosophies. Featuring brand new content and sensational new photos, BTS - The Ultimate Fan Book includes everything you need to know about Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, as well as the BTS ARMY. A celebration of the K-Pop phenomenon, exploring in stunning technicolour detail the group's origins, members and super rise to success, this Ultimate Fan Book is beautifully accompanied by photographs showcasing the band's kaleidoscope of personalities and passions that have made them famous. BTS are more than just a boy band – they are a way of life.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781802798234 • Author:  Malcolm Croft • Publisher:  Mortimer • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  80 • Dimensions:  22.23 x 1.27 x 28.58 cm

So, I’ve written a book. I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.  From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on.  I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.  Product Information: • ISBN: 9781398503724 • Author: Dave Grohl • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK • Format: Paperback • Pages: 384 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 2.7 cm

A definitive and intriguing biography of Max Verstappen, Formula 1's superstar, Lewis Hamilton's great rival and the three-time winner of the World Drivers' Championship. No Hollywood scriptwriter could possibly have envisioned the breathless, adrenaline-pumping climax to the 2021 Formula 1 season. On the very last lap of the final race of an unbelievably arduous and controversial season, Red Bull's Max Verstappen nervelessly overtook the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes to clinch the first place that thrust the young prodigy to the narrowest of victories and to his first World Drivers' title. He followed up by taking the 2022 and 2023 titles as well. Verstappen may only be 26 years of age, but the Dutch motorsport sensation has an incredible record in F1. This young man has already left an indelible mark on the sport. The son of F1 driver Jos, Verstappen junior quickly stepped out of his father's shadow: his youthful charisma, ferocious speed, fearless driving style and refusal to back down mark him out as a true champion. And the phenomenal success of Netflix's Drive to Survive documentary series has elevated his worldwide popularity still further. Widely respected motorsport writer and F1 insider Mark Hughes is perfectly placed to write the most authoritative narrative on Verstappen's incredible rise through the ranks to F1 glory. Hughes' immaculate credentials and first-rate access enable him to generate fresh and fascinating insights, and to paint a fully-rounded and richly-textured portrait of one of the most exciting young sportsmen on the planet.  Product Information:  • ISBN:  9781472299048 • Author:  Mark Hughes • Publisher:  Headline • Format:  Paperback • Pages:  352 • Dimensions:   15.4 x 3.6 x 23.6 cm