She should never have kept the business going after her husband died. Running a betting shop is no job for a woman. Especially when shes got bad legs. After a short stay at hospital herself Evelyn Prentis wondered what was in store for her when she returned to work. From the door-slamming Miss Cromwell to Mrs Silvers shoplifting & Mrs May coming over all queer being Matron in charge of the Lodge was rarely straightforward. So when her ladies became unusually united in their grumbling about newest resident Ivy the woman whod kept the betting shop on the High Street Evelyn was ready for all hell to break loose. But instead with openness & kindness Ivy won people over & even started bringing them together. Suddenly being in charge of the Lodge was no trouble at all... ...

Joan Woodcock always dreamed of becoming a nurse. & in 1966 the dream came true. From her very first day as a naive sixteen-year-old cadet standing nervously outside Matrons office this is Joans story of an eventful career spanning forty years in the NHS. Working on hospital wards casualty units & out in the community as well as stints in a prison & a police unit dealing with sexual assault Joan has seen it all. In this moving memoir she gives an honest revealing account of a challenging unpredictable & ultimately rewarding life in nursing. From an early encounter with a horrific axe injury to the patient who swallowed their suppositories to daily dealings with difficult patients & all kinds of bodily fluids Joan shares memories of laughter & tragedy & of the now defunct matron system that at one time instilled nurses with such high standards of professionalism & patient care. ...

In those weeks following the audition Id started to think that maybe I could do well in the competition & even to see beyond bootcamp & what doing well could mean. I knew I never wanted to go back to painting whatever happened. Matts dream has come true & this is his story. Painter-decorator bricklayer milkman even Santa Matts always been in bands always putting off starting a career because he knew that what he really wanted to do was sing. Charismatic but down to earth loved by the judges the other contestants & of course the public for his cheeky smile & warm heart Matt is a true star in the making. Packed full of unseen photographs shot especially for the book backstage footage behind-the-scenes gossip & the full & remarkable story of the winner from X Factor hopeful to popstar sensation this book is a must-have for all X Factor fans. Stunningly designed this is the perfect gift for Christmas. ...

The most capped England rugby scrum-half of all time a captain of his country & a two-times British Lions tourist Matt Dawsons career story is a colourful tale spiced with controversy from club rugby at Northampton to England winning the Rugby World Cup in Australia. Now fully updated with Englands first year as World Champions. The boy from Birkenhead learnt the game the hard way working as a security guard & an advertising salesman in his formative years in the days when rugby players found relief in an active & alcoholic social life. (Dawson: The drinking started on Saturday night continued all Sunday & most nights until Thursday.) Despite the frequent visits to the operating theatre & the physios table hard graft for his club Northampton eventually heralded international recognition. Dawson talks about the influential & occasional obstructive figures in his blossoming career: the likes of John Olver Will Carling Ian Mc Geechan & more recently Wayne Shelford Kyran Bracken & Clive Woodward. In typically opinionated mode he also reflects on the successes & failures of the England team & famously the Lions in Australia in 2001. After speaking out against punishing schedules disenchanted players & lack of management support in a tour diary article Dawson was almost sent home in disgrace. He revisits that bitterly disappointing period in his life & is still not afraid to point out where everything went wrong. Following Englands Rugby World Cup 2003 success Dawson provides a first-hand account of all the dressing room drama
- including a troubled Jonny Wilkinson
- & the memorable final itself followed by the stunning reaction to this historic win back home. & in a new updated chapter for this paperback edition he reveals how the World Champions have overcome the retirement of key players reviews the 2004 Six Nations & looks at his own future in the game.

...

A singer once said his pitch was right on the nose: his word enunciation letter perfect: his understanding of a song thorough. He will be missed very much not only by myself but by his fans all over the world. The singer was the legendary Frank Sinatra The man he spoke about: the irreplaceable Matt Monro. The Singers Singer: The Life & Music of Matt Monro" is the highly-anticipated story of one of Britains most iconic singers tracing Matt Monros life from his poverty stricken upbringing in post-war Britain to his day job as London bus driver to the steady rise to fame that saw the singer battling the highs & lows of the entertainment industry to become one of Britains best-loved entertainers. This is the man behind the image the man who rubbed shoulders with some of the most famous names in the business who recorded the very first James Bond theme song (" From Russia with Love") represented his country in Eurovisions Song Contest & Royal Command & recorded the international hits " Softly as I Leave You" " Born Free" " Walk Away" & " Portrait of My Love". In an intimate portrait written by the singers daughter Michele Monro & drawing on more than two hundred interviews from the most important characters in Matts life " The Singers Singer" exposes the man behind the voice telling the story of how Terry Parson overcame poverty prejudice & alcoholism to arrive at the very heart of the post-war British entertainment industry as the unforgettable Matt Monro. Including never-before-seen photography exclusive correspondence between Matt & some of the biggest names in the music business & a rich array of personal anecdotes this is the first comprehensive look at the life of the man his peers dubbed the Singers Singer the irreplaceable Matt Monro." ...

As aspiring youth footballer before injury forced him to reconsider his career Smith left his hometown of Northampton at the age of 18 to study drama & creative writing at the University of East Anglia. An outstanding performance in the National Youth Theatre production of The Master & Margarita in 2003 brought him to the attention of an agent & earned him his first professional acting jobs & his first television appearance came in 2006 in the BBC adaptation of Phillip Pullmans The Ruby in the Smoke. His first major role followed a year later & 2007 also saw him debut in Londons West End starring in Fresh Kills which he followed with a critically acclaimed performance as Henry in That Face. But Smiths biggest break came when he was cast in Doctor Who first appearing in the show on 1 January 2010. Replacing the much-loved David Tennant was no mean feat for a relatively unknown actor like Matt Smith but he has risen to the challenge & received rave reviews from critics & viewers alike. This is the inside story of the Doctor & the rapid rise of the man behind the latest incarnation of the famous Time Lord. ...

In a world renowned within a galaxy full of wonders a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight & a search for the one
- maybe two
- people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery & murder. & for their sister it means returning to a place shed thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Cultures Special Circumstances section charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity
- & her particular set of abilities
- might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns nothing is quite as it seems; & determining the appropriate level of interference in someone elses war is never a simple matter.



...

Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father's will aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel after all had nothing to leave
- except a letter he had never opened himself a letter that can only bring further disgrace to the family name. Against his mother's advice Adam opens the letter & immediately realizes his life can never be the same again. The contents leave him with no choice but to follow a course his father would have described as a matter of honour.
...

A Matter of Life & Death profiles some of the worlds most eminent & pioneering pathologists. This is a hidden world yet one we will all inevitably encounter at some time in our lives for pathology lies at the cornerstone of modern medicine. It is pathologists who are responsible for recognising new diseases such as AIDS SARS or Bird Flu & for diagnosing which cancer a patient is suffering from. & it is pathologists who must explain the cause of death at the autopsy table. A Matter of Life & Death tells fascinating stories of mysterious illnesses & miraculous scientific breakthroughs. But it is also crammed full of extraordinary characters
- from the forensic anthropologist with his own Body Farm in Tennessee to the doctor who had a lung & heart transplant & ended up using her own lungs for research.
...

When a bomb goes off in Londons West End Home Secretary Victoria Osborne has a desperate sense of having failed in her duty to protect the public. A young Muslim reporter Ahmed Khan also has deep-seated feelings of anger & responsibility. He persuades his editor to let him go back amongst childhood friends in Leeds to try to find any lead that might help prevent further bombs. When Ahmed meets Victorias daughter Nattie at a party he cannot get her out of his mind. They begin seeing each other. But as he investigates his hometown & finds out uncomfortable facts his involvement with Nattie has everyone alarmed. Knowing something catastrophic is being planned & fearing for Natties safety Ahmed becomes obsessively determined to thwart it whatever the cost to himself. ...