David Jason is Britain's best-loved star. From his wonderful characterisation of Del Boy in Only Fools nd Horses to Detective Jack Frost & Mr Micawber he lights up the television screen whenever he appears & has captured the heart of a nation. This remarkable biography traces the life of Britain's favourite actor from his humble roots in north London through his days as an electrician to Sir David Jason the icon we all know & love. Recruited to an early Python project for his masterful sense of timing David soon attracted the attention of Ronnie Barker with whom he appeared in episodes of the classic BBC comdey series Porridge & Open All Hours. He has gone on to create many television's popular & enduring characters garning numerous accolades including Royal Television Society's Award for Best Actor a Top Television Comedy Actor at the British Comedy Awards & a BAFTA fellowship for his outstanding contribution to television. He also received the ultimate tribute in 2005: a knighthood from the Queen. Revealing the man behind Del Boy Pop Larkin & Jack Frost this authoritative biography offers valuable insight into his life & loves covering the tragic loss of his partner of eighteen years Myfanwy Talog & the joy of his secret wedding to new love Gill Hinchliffe & the birth of their daughter Sophie Mae. ...

More than four hundred years after his death Sir Francis Drake remains one of the legendary figures of history. His career is one of the most colourful on record. The most daring of the corsairs who raided the West Indies & Spanish Main he led the English into the Pacific & cirumnavigated the world to bring home the Golden Hind laden with Spanish treasure. His attacks on Spanish cities & ships transformed his private war into a struggle for surivival between Protestant England & Catholic Spain in which he became Elizabeth I's most prominent admiral. His exploits marked the emergence of England as a major maritime nation. ...

Composed during the fourteenth century in the English Midlands Sir Gawain & the Green Knight" describes the events that follow when a mysterious green-coloured knight rides into King Arthurs Camelot in deep mid-winter. The mighty knight presents a challenge to the court: he will allow himself to be struck by one blow on the condition that he will be allowed to return the strike on the following New Years Eve. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge decapitating the stranger
- only to see the Green Knight seize up his own severed head & ride away leaving Gawain to seek him out & honour their pact. Blending Celtic myth & Christian faith " Gawain" is among the greatest Middle English poems: a tale of magic chivalry & seduction."
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A dazzling retelling of one of the greatest Arthurian legends. A magical story from the tales of the Knights of the Round Table. Here are thrills & enchantment chivalry & courage a challenge & a quest. Its hero is the greatest of all King Arthur's knights Sir Gawain. His adversary is the fearsome Green Knight who rides into Camelot one New Year's Eve with a challenge that strikes dread into Arthur's court. ...

This is an insightful & fascinating portrait into the life of one of cinemas greatest actors. Born Maurice Micklewhite son of a Billingsgate fish porter & a charlady Michael Caines life has been an extraordinary rollercoaster: from washing dishes & fighting on National Service to winning two Oscars & being knighted by the Queen. With more than eighty films to his name he has starred in some of the classics of modern cinema: as an action anti-hero in Get Carter a Cockney lothario in Alfie & a disillusioned alcoholic academic in Educating Rita. He is an enduring model of British cool. This authorised biography charts the amazing highs & lows in his turbulent ride to fame fortune & respect. This recording is unabridged. Typically abridged audiobooks are not more than 60 per cent of the authors work & as low as 30 per cent with characters & plot lines removed. ...

Sir Walter Winterbottom was arguably the most influential man in modern English football. He is known as the first England team manager but more than that he was an innovator of modern coaching sports administrator & a man ahead of his time; a man who had a profound effect on English football & who laid the foundations for England's success in 1966. Walter managed them all from Lawton to Charlton & inspired many to become coaches: Ron Greenwood Bill Nicholson Jimmy Hill & Bobby Robson were amongst his disciples & took his gospel to the clubs they managed. Born in 1913 Winterbottom started out as a teacher & physical education instructor playing amateur football in his spare time. He was soon signed up by Manchester United playing his first game 1936 & winning promotion to the First Division in 1938. A spinal ailment curtailed his career but during World War II he served as an officer in the Royal Air Force before the FA appointed him as national director of coaching & England team manager in 1946. He remains the ony manager to have taken the national side to more than two World Cup finals & was created an OBE in 1963 & a CBE in 1972 before being knighted in 1978. Walter died in 2002 but his legacy continues to inspire many in football today especially with the opening of the new St George's Park football academy. With interviews & insight from top football names this book
- written by Winterbottom's son-in-law
- also draws on personal diaries photographs & letters. However this is more than just a biography of one man
- it's the story of how modern football came about.


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Sir William Garrow was born in Middlesex in 1760 & called to the Bar in 1783. He was the dominant figure at the Old Bailey from 1783 to 1793 later becoming an MP Solicitor-General Attorney-General & finally a judge & lawmaker within the Common Law Tradition. Garrow is now in the public-eye for daring to challenge entrenched legal ways & means. His gifts to the world include altering the relationship between judge & jury (the former had until then dominated over the latter in criminal trials) helping to forge the presumption of innocence rules of evidence & ensuring a general right to put forward a defence using a trained lawyer. He gave new meaning to the trial advocates forensic art of cross-examination later diverting skills honed as a radical to help the Crown when it was faced with alleged plots treason & sedition. This is a generous work in which well-known legal historian & biographer John Hostettler & family story-teller Richard Braby (a descendant of Garrow) combine their skills & experience to produce a gem of a book. The lost story of Sir William Garrow & its rediscovery will prove enlightening for professional & general readers alike & provide an invaluable missing-link for legal & social historians. It is also a remarkable work of genealogical research which will register strongly with family historians. ...

There are some books you never forget. Some stories that can change your world. This is one of them. Author Nora Sutherlin thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain nothing is ever that simple. Now Nora must face up to the choices she has made...and to the man she left behind. This story is about discovering who you really are...and who you want to be. The Siren" is a love story that will leave you bruised shaken & begging for more." ...

Norman Douglas one of the 20th centurys great travellers in Italy was for most of his life inextricably passionately connected to the Bay of Naples. This breathtaking sweep of sea & coastline
- dominated by Vesuvius & with Pozzuoli & Sorrento standing sentinel
- was Douglas first experience of Italy. It was here on the island of Capri that he died some 55 years after first buying a villa in Naples. Siren Land" Douglas first travel book is a homage to a part of the world that captivated him more than any other. Weaving the myths of the Sirens into the landscape & history of the region Douglas writes with knowledge & an irrepressible exuberance of the past & the present of legends & archaeology folklore & daily life patron saints local ghosts wine & the wind. As the summer draws to a close Douglas prose becomes suffused with a melancholy tinged with excitement at what still remains to be discovered: relics of Roman rule of old Hellas or medieval romance... These are the delights of Siren Land. What makes " Siren Land" exceptional is the quality of the telling. Weaving scholarship impressions fact & fantasy into an intricate fabric as enchantingly entertaining & full of human interest as the best of fairy tales or ancient myths. One of the most memorable books of its genre
- Mark Holloway in his introduction to " Siren Land"."


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Mystery & adventure for four young detectives in Ancient Roman times... It's summer in the Bay of Naples
- time for fun & relaxation.
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