This is the long awaited autobiography of one of Britain's most internationally successful stars, Michael Crawford. By turns funny, charming & sad, here is his vivid account of a war torn childhood -of a loving mother, a violent stepfather & the painful truth about his absent father. His early memories include being taught to sing by Benjamin Brittan, hilarious anecdotes involving his budding love of girls, & the beginning of a lifetime's habit of hilarious pratfalls that he would later turn to good use in the character of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do ' Ave Em. His early years in showbusiness led to friendships with David Hemmings, John Lennon & Oliver Reed
- as well as the chance to take the mickey out of Michael Winner on set!
- & then, as his career began to reach the heights there are stories of Michael making a fool of himself in front of idols Gene Kelly & Barbra Streisand while filming Hello Dolly! in Hollywood. Starring in Barnum & The Phantom of the Opera he became one of the world's biggest stars, but his behind the scenes anecdotes both professional & personal show the honest & self-deprecating quality that have given him a unique place in the affections of the British public.

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By turns hilarious, revelatory & desperately sad, here is the autobiography of the man whose successes such as Hello Dolly!, Some Mothers Do ` Ave ' Em & The Phantom of the Opera have made him a national institution. The story of the true identity of his father, which is behind this book's title, leads into an evocative depiction of his tender childhood years. Whilst all the men were away at war, he was surrounded by loving women. For him this was an idyllic wartime childhood, but the return of the men in peacetime signalled darker times to come. Crawford's infectious enjoyment of stage work illumines his account of his early struggles to make a name for himself in the business, & his early failures with girls are lifted by his abiding sense of the absurd. Both in his private life & his work he begins a lifetime's habit of pratfalls that he would later turn to good use in the character of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do ` Ave ' Em. His talent for mimicry makes the great personalities in his life come alive on the page; people he has worked with, including Benjamin Britten who taught him to sing, John Lennon
- with whom he shared a villa
- & Oliver Reed, Michael Winner, Barbra Steis&, Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra.

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As if parenting wasn't difficult enough, now every new, exhausted, poo-covered mum or dad feels duty bound to prop their eyes open with matchsticks & wade through endless parenting manuals instructing them how to be the perfect parent.

Thankfully, however, Natasha Desborough, radio presenter, tv pundit & mum of two, is here to quell your feelings of inadequacy & discuss 'real' parenting, warts & all. Drawing on the experiences & confessions of real life mums & dads she uncovers the truth about life with children.

She discusses an extraordinarily broad range of subjects including

· Replacement swear words to use in front of your children (Plaps, Twunt, Flufflenuff...)
· The advantages of using a Parkinson's disease sufferer to get your baby to sleep
· Substitute Willy Names (and the top 5 places little boys have put their willies)
· The Language Of The Playgroup
- what other mothers actually mean
· Substitute Fanny Names (Tuppence
- is that all its worth?)
· What sex is really like after childbirth.

At last struggling parents of the world can unite. rejoice & bathe in their inadequacies as a real-life parenting bible is born.














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When a marriage ends, the most important thing divorcing parents can do is to help their children through this difficult transition & remain united as parents even if they are no longer united as a couple.

In Parenting Apart divorce coach Christina Mc Ghee offers practical advice on how to help children adjust & thrive during & after separation & divorce. She looks at all the different issues parents may face with their children of different ages, offering immediate solutions to the most critical parenting problems divorce brings, including:

· When to tell your children about the divorce & what to say
· How to create a loving, secure home if your child doesn




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' Nothing but a brothel & a gambling hell' roared Thomas Carlyle at the thought of Paris, a city known in the nineteenth century as 'the new Babylon', & notorious for its obsession with sex & money. Ruled by the ailing despot Napoleon III & his ruthless wife Eugenie, Paris in 1869 was racked with scandal, anxiety & political tension. Europe's most glittering & confident capital, spectacularly rebuilt by Baron Haussmann, was on the verge of a catastrophic nemesis
- the Franco-Prussian War & the fall of the Second Empire, followed by a four-month siege & the establishment of the Commune, a brave socialist experiment which soon ended in massive bloodshed & destruction. Paris Babylon charts & explains this astonishing course of events, as well as painting a richly detailed picture of Parisian life, from its palaces, theatres, hotels & department stores to its prisons, hospitals & back-street dives. Drawing on a broad range of sources & a rich cast of characters, Rupert Christiansen evokes one of the most dramatic episodes of modern history
- one which still has powerful resonance today.

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The Reverend Henry Harding was a handsome & prepossessing man. Unfortunately fate had seen fit to bless him with a family of extremely plain & unprepossessing children. Caroline was the least plain, according to Lady Lennox, but the entire Lennox family also admitted that Caroline was the least significant person in Dorset.
Caroline, already twenty-six & bullied by her sister, was nervous in company & had no prospects at all. She had one golden memory, of an admirer when she was eighteen, but John Gates, nephew to the Lennox family, had gone to India & forgotten her. Or so she thought.
When Caroline was summoned by Lady Lennox to be told that Johnny Gates had sent a proposal of marriage, Caroline first declined. But within a few weeks tragedy had overtaken her. The little security & contentment she had known vanished from her life & left her no option but to accept Lady Lennox's offer.
In the October of 1776, Caroline Harding set sail for India, to a new life & a man she had not seen for eight years.


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Early in 1941, having just seen off at Euston Station the two young men whom she has loved for the best part of her seventeen years, Juno Marlowe is hurrying down a London street with her ill-fitting shoes in her hands. Aeroplanes thunder overhead; a battery of guns opens up. When a stick of bombs falls she cowers, then takes to her heels in flight. She is rescued from this nightmare by a gaunt stranger, frail & older than his years; guiding her up his front steps, he offers her the protection of his house.

Given this respite from the bleakness of an existence where she has no home & family to turn to, Juno encounters first tragedy, then a series of events that take her to a house in the West Country & the blossoming of an English Spring into which war only occasionally intrudes. Here she may find peace, here she will no longer just be part of the furniture.

Mary Wesley



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