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 & often unpleasant experience.

As a struggling writer, David was catapulted into the thrilling world of satire at the BBC when he rang THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS with a joke & got through to David Frost, who sent a taxi for the joke. He never looked back. His greatness as a modern comic writer was confirmed by the publication of THE FALL & RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN, which he adapted into the immensely successful television series that has entered the fabric of British cultural life, through phrases, images & brilliant humour.

A mesmerising, beautifully told tale of life in writing & comedy, I DIDN'T GET WHERE I AM TODAY is the hilarious, poignant & very personal story of David Nobbs' life, which also describes some of the most famous comedians of the last century & captures a golden age of British television.



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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 & often unpleasant experience.

As a struggling writer, David was catapulted into the thrilling world of satire at the BBC when he rang THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS with a joke & got through to David Frost, who sent a taxi for the joke. He never looked back. His greatness as a modern comic writer was confirmed by the publication of THE FALL & RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN, which he adapted into the immensely successful television series that has entered the fabric of British cultural life, through phrases, images & brilliant humour.

A mesmerising, beautifully told tale of life in writing & comedy, I DIDN'T GET WHERE I AM TODAY is the hilarious, poignant & very personal story of David Nobbs' life, which also describes some of the most famous comedians of the last century & captures a golden age of British television.



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Henning Mankell is not a public figure in the way that politicians are, nor does he court publicity for himself, but he is one of the most successful authors of our time & has devoted his recent years to work with Aids charities. In I Die, but the memory Lives On, this master storyteller has written a fable to illustrate the importance of books as a means of education, of preserving memories & of sharing life. In a very personal account he tells of his own fears & anxieties for the sufferers of HIV & Aids &, drawing on his experiences in many parts of Africa of the journeys that he has made to remote villages & the impressions he has gained there, proposes a way to help. The problem of Aids has been kept largely under control in Europe, but in Africa it is a very different story. Lack of education about the disease & lack of money to buy life-prolonging drugs for existing sufferers have turned the problem into a plague of biblical proportions. As parents die at a young age, infant orphans are left behind. The cycle continues, seemingly in perpetuity. Memory Books is a project through which the HIV-infected parents of today are encouraged to write portraits of their lives & testaments of their love for their orphans of tomorrow. Through a combination of words & drawings they can leave a legacy, a hope that future generations may not suffer the same heartbreaking fate. The publication of this book will raise awareness of this international problem which, though it may not always be on the front pages of our newspapers, must be always on our minds until something has truly changed for the better. ...

Henning Mankell is not a public figure in the way that politicians are, nor does he court publicity for himself, but he is one of the most successful authors of our time & has devoted his recent years to work with Aids charities. In I Die, but the memory Lives On, this master storyteller has written a fable to illustrate the importance of books as a means of education, of preserving memories & of sharing life. In a very personal account he tells of his own fears & anxieties for the sufferers of HIV & Aids &, drawing on his experiences in many parts of Africa of the journeys that he has made to remote villages & the impressions he has gained there, proposes a way to help. The problem of Aids has been kept largely under control in Europe, but in Africa it is a very different story. Lack of education about the disease & lack of money to buy life-prolonging drugs for existing sufferers have turned the problem into a plague of biblical proportions. As parents die at a young age, infant orphans are left behind. The cycle continues, seemingly in perpetuity. Memory Books is a project through which the HIV-infected parents of today are encouraged to write portraits of their lives & testaments of their love for their orphans of tomorrow. Through a combination of words & drawings they can leave a legacy, a hope that future generations may not suffer the same heartbreaking fate. The publication of this book will raise awareness of this international problem which, though it may not always be on the front pages of our newspapers, must be always on our minds until something has truly changed for the better. ...

Meet Kate Reddy, fund manager & mother of two. She can juggle nine different currencies in five different time zones & get herself & two children washed & dressed & out of the house in half an hour. A victim of time famine, Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she hurtles between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of the working mother's life: must remember client reports, bouncy castles, transatlantic phone call, nativity play, check Dow Jones, cancel hygienist, squeeze sagging pelvic floor, make time for sex. Factor in a manipulative nanny, an Australian boss who looks at Kate's breasts as if they're on special offer, a long suffering husb&, her quietly aghast in-laws, two needy children & an e-mail lover, & you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something's going to hit the ground. In an uproariously funny & achingly sad novel, Allison Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working mothers, the self-recriminations, comic deceptions, forgeries, giddy exhaustion & despair as no other writer has ever done. With fierce irony & a sparkling style, she brilliantly dramatises the dilemma of working motherhood at the start of the 21st century. ...

A victim of time famine, thirty-five-year-old Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she runs between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of every high-flying mother's life: client reports, bouncy castles, Bob The Builder, transatlantic phone calls, dental appointments, pelvic floor exercises, flights to New York, sex (too knackered), & stress-busting massages she always has to cancel (too busy). Factor in a controlling nanny, a chauvinist Australian boss, a long-suffering husb&, two demanding children & an e-mail lover, & you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something's going to hit the ground. Pearson brings her sharp wit & compassionate intelligence to this hilarious &, at times, piercingly sad study of the human cost of trying to Have It All. Women everywhere are already talking about the Kate Reddy column which appears weekly in the Daily Telegraph, & recommending it to their sisters, mothers, friends & even their bewildered partners. This fictional debut by one of Britain's most gifted journalists is the subject of a movie deal with Miramax rumoured to be for almost $1million & has sold around the world, sparking bidding wars in Spain, Germany & Japan. Everyone is getting Reddy for Kate. ...

Meet Kate Reddy, fund manager & mother of two. She can juggle nine different currencies in five different time zones & get herself & two children washed & dressed & out of the house in half an hour. A victim of time famine, Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she hurtles between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of the working mother's life: must remember client reports, bouncy castles, transatlantic phone call, nativity play, check Dow Jones, cancel hygienist, squeeze sagging pelvic floor, make time for sex. Factor in a manipulative nanny, an Australian boss who looks at Kate's breasts as if they're on special offer, a long suffering husb&, her quietly aghast in-laws, two needy children & an e-mail lover, & you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something's going to hit the ground. In an uproariously funny & achingly sad novel, Allison Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working mothers, the self-recriminations, comic deceptions, forgeries, giddy exhaustion & despair as no other writer has ever done. With fierce irony & a sparkling style, she brilliantly dramatises the dilemma of working motherhood at the start of the 21st century. ...

No one can deny the impact that Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell has made. His acerbic put-downs & witty one-liners have sparked ...