The first ever intimate portrait of Britain's best-loved but little known comedy entertainer. Fully authorised & written by Cooper's friend & colleague John Fisher. More than just a comedian Tommy Cooper was a born entertainer. Working in a golden age of British comedy Cooper stood
- literally
- head & shoulders above the crowd & had a magical talent for humour that defied description. But there was a man behind the laughter that few people saw. John Fisher was Cooper's friend & colleague & witnessed first-hand the moments of self-doubt & inadequacy that contrasted with the genial exterior. Until his tragic death on live television in 1984 Tommy Cooper lived in constant fear of the day he would be found out by his audience. He could never accept the accolades that came so thick & fast from every direction & died to the sounds of laughter that he never really believed. Supplementing his own intimate knowledge with material accessed for the first time from the archives of Cooper's agent & manager Miff Ferrie & with the full co-operation of the Cooper family John Fisher's warm honest & insightful writing skilfully brings alive the man behind the comedic mask in this definitive biography of a comedy legend.

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For soldiers in the Great War going over the top was a comparatively rare event; much more frequently they were bored & lonely & missing their families at home. Needing an outlet for their affection many found it in the animal kingdom. Tommys Ark" looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there & examines their relationship with a strange & unexpected range of animal life from horses dogs & cats to monkeys & birds
- even in one case a golden eagle. Animals became mascots
- some Welsh battalions had goats as mascots some of the Scots had donkeys. & then there were the animals & insects that excited curiosity amongst men drawn into the army from the industrial heartlands of Britain men who had little knowledge of let alone daily contact with wildlife. Civilians turned soldiers observed the natural world around them from the smallest woodlouse to voles mice & larger animals such as deer & rabbit. Richard van Emden explores his subject far more radically than previous attempts revealing how for example a lemur was taken on combat missions in the air a lion was allowed to pad down the front line trenches & how a monkey lost its leg during the fighting at Delville Wood on the Somme. It is illustrated with more than sixty previously unseen or rarely published photographs drawn mainly from the authors own extraordinary collection."

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For soldiers in the Great War going over the top was a comparatively rare event; much more frequently they were bored & lonely & missing their families at home. Needing an outlet for their affection many found it in the animal kingdom. Tommys Ark" looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there & examines their relationship with a strange & unexpected range of animal life from horses dogs & cats to monkeys & birds
- even in one case a golden eagle. Animals became mascots
- some Welsh battalions had goats as mascots some of the Scots had donkeys. & then there were the animals & insects that excited curiosity amongst men drawn into the army from the industrial heartlands of Britain men who had little knowledge of let alone daily contact with wildlife. Civilians turned soldiers observed the natural world around them from the smallest woodlouse to voles mice & larger animals such as deer & rabbit. Richard van Emden explores his subject far more radically than previous attempts revealing how for example a lemur was taken on combat missions in the air a lion was allowed to pad down the front line trenches & how a monkey lost its leg during the fighting at Delville Wood on the Somme. This title is illustrated with more than sixty previously unseen or rarely published photographs drawn mainly from the authors own extraordinary collection."

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Shall have to be about all night for have charge of this particular bit of trench. Have now made close acquaintance with the brilliant lights we have seen breaking over No Mans L&. They are fired from a large pistol one of which I have in my pocket now also a supply of cartridges for same. On anything the least bit suspicious happening out in front during the hours of darkness a shot from this pistol fired up in the air after the style of a rocket will produce a very brilliant light lasting over half a minute as it falls to the earth. It is a very useful affair for the imagination absolutely runs riot during the darkness. The night is hardly half gone but have used 12 or 14 cartridges already to convince the boys that there is nothing moving out there". Lance Corporal Henry Buckles drawings & writings are a window onto the Western Front as one man saw it. His charming colour sketches are a rare & exquisite insight into trench life that cannot fail to amuse & move the observer. This book truly means that you can experience the Great War at first h&." ...

The bestselling author of the nostalgic classics OUR KID & KATES STORY has based his engaging new novel on the fascinating & inspiring life of his father Tommy born in a Manchester slum in 1886 Tommy Hopkins early years arent very promising. Born at the end of the nineteenth century in a slum district of Manchester hes blessed with a loving hard-working mam & dad but they dont have two hapennies to rub together. The family is struck by tragedy not once but twice
- but Tommy is a survivor. He quickly makes friends at school & together they plot money-making schemes settle scores & play lots of football. Then at last its time to leave the playground behind. Denied the chance of a promising career as an engineer Tommy finds employment at Manchesters Smithfield market & works his way up finally becoming a porter. Hes turning into a man & amongst the young women who catch his eye is Kate Lally who may just be the love of his life...
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Tomorrow we ride. thats what my brother Louison & I used to say as we arranged to meet: every day while we were racing cyclists & then just on Sundays when we werent competing any more. We kept on riding until the end of his life because even then
- especially then perhaps
- we always understood each other best on bikes. We had always needed a bike beneath us. In the words of the song we took the high road & the low road: in cycling the glory days always have less glorious ones on their tail. Thanks to Louison I had the good fortune to ride with him through the golden years the 50s: the years of post-war reconstruction of Coppi & Bartali of Kubler & Koblet of Gaul & Van Steenbergen Anquetil & Darrigade. These are names that speak of the aristocracy of cycling & the fierceness of the competition. Every day Louison & I took pleasure in cycling together whether on our intimate journeys through Brittany or the Alps or in the frenzy of the Tour de France or Giro d Italia." Jean Bobet. Jean Bobets book is not so much a biography of his superstar brother Louison nor his own autobiography but rather an account of the intermingling of their two lives. & what lives
- Louison triple Tour de France winner & World Champion & Jean (no mean rider himself) who gave up an academic career to ride in the service of his brother in pursuit of sporting glory. Set in the period after the war this story brings alive the romance of the great races & the star riders of the day whose exploits lifted the public spirit after years of conflict & economic hardship."


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For Alan Carter the greatest personal sacrifice of the Great War of 1914-18 is being called-up after only one week of marriage. Leaving his new bride is even more painful than the wound that months later interrupts his war at sea & sends him to Cornwall to convalesce. For there he has time to think about Dora & about the career as a writer that he secretly nurtures. A career that seems possible when he finds himself accepted by the established colony of Newlyn artists. There is one artist in particular
- Vicky Hazleton
- who encourages Alans leanings towards the arts. & she stirs other feelings: inappropriate & impossible ones. For Vicky & her set inhabit a different world from Alan. He as one of Vickys friends makes clear belongs to Londons East End
- & to Dora.. .


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When their country is invaded & their families are taken eight high school teenagers band together to fight. Seventeen-year-old Ellie Linton wants one final adventure with her friends before the school holidays are over. Packed in Ellies parents land rover they drive to the famously isolated rock pool Eden dubbed Hell by the locals. Returning to their home town of Wirrawee the seven teenagers realize that something is seriously wrong. Power to the houses has been cut pets & livestock have been left dead or dying & most alarmingly of all everyones family has vanished. When the hostile armed forces discover that the teenagers are lying low in the vicinity Ellie & her friends must band together to escape outwit & strike back against the mysterious enemy that has seized control of their town & imprisoned their friends & loved ones... ...

Andy Coogan was born in Glasgow in 1917 the oldest child of poor Irish immigrants. He was tipped for Olympic glory but a promising running career was interrupted by war service. His capture during the fall of Singapore marked the beginning of a three-&-a-half-year nightmare of starvation torture & disease. Andy was imprisoned in the notorious Changi camp before being transported to Taiwan where he worked as a slave in a copper mine & was twice ordered to dig his own grave. He was later taken to Japan on a hell-ship voyage that nearly killed him but Andy's athleticism & spirit enabled him to survive an ordeal in which many died. From his poverty-stricken boyhood in the slums of the Gorbals to the atomic wasteland of Nagasaki Andy's life story is vividly recounted in Tomorrow You Die" an epic compassionate tale that will shock enthral & inspire." ...

Andy Coogan was born in Glasgow in 1917 the oldest child of poor Irish immigrants. He was tipped for Olympic glory but a promising running career was interrupted by war service. His capture during the fall of Singapore marked the beginning of a three-&-a-half-year nightmare of starvation torture & disease. Andy was imprisoned in the notorious Changi camp before being transported to Taiwan where he worked as a slave in a copper mine & was twice ordered to dig his own grave. He was later taken to Japan on a hellship voyage that nearly killed him but Andy's athleticism & spirit enable him to survive an ordeal in which many died. From his poverty-stricken boyhood in the slums of the Gorbals to the atomic wasteland of Nagasaki Andy's life story is vividly recounted in Tomorrow You Die an epic compassionate tale that will shock enthral & inspire. ...