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Knebworth 1996, and as the crowds wait for Oasis to appear Ben is thinking about his girlfriend, Sarah, who has embarked on a year's teaching English in Japan. While she is away, exploring a new country, savouring new friendships, Ben is left behind in England, whiling away the hours working for New Labour at Millbank. Ben isn't entirely alone, for there's Bex, his flatmate, voluntarily parted from her boyfriend, Si. Bex is a folk guitarist, and at one of her gigs, Ben meets Mika, a Japanese folkie and a big Nick Drake fan. And though it is Sarah who is doing all the travelling, it's Ben who's experiencing some wanderlust of his own . . . 'A shrewd and ingenious riff on modern relationships, but finally more than that: it's about politics and music as well as feelings, and how you have to insist on the highest standards in all three. A comic gem with a serious undertow' Jonathan Coe
Some sports lend themselves to language: cycling is one of them. With its rich history and culture, and its professional roots across the continent and beyond, cycling has developed a terminology that goes well beyond borders, producing a lexicon all of its own.0This book guides the reader through a land where the road to hell is paved not with good intentions, but with cobbles. This is a place where all the world is a stage, unless you are a one-day specialist. Where its inhabitants come with a litany of arresting nicknames - Badgers, Cannibals, Eagles, Pirates -each with a wonderful story of their own.0Lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned artworks by acclaimed cycling illustrator Neil Stevens and historical photography from both the British Library collections and L'Equipe, this is a book that takes the reader from the tete de la course to the gruppetto, from the caravane following the race to the tifosi cheering on the mountainside. Insightful and irreverent, Bespoke is the book for anyone who wants to be able to speak cycling.
Everything you wanted to know about one hit wonders. Packed with information, interviews with the one hit heroes and snippets of lyrics from those songs everyone loves to hate, this is the perfect book about this very special element of pop culture.
Television past, as LP Hartley might have once said, is another country. And, in the early 1980s it certainly was a different beast. There were still only three channels to watch; the evening's programmes finished with the playing of the national anthem; and the biggest prize on TV was not Chris Tarrant's million pounds but a speedboat on Bullseye . . . But as Tom Bromley suggests in this funny and warming memoir, all that was about to change: The 1980s saw the end of the original golden era of television, and the beginnings of TV as we know it today. In 1982, Channel 4 became the first new terrestrial channel for almost twenty years and by the end of the decade, Rupert Murdoch's Sky Televis...
A variety of contributors - including journalists, cultural theorists, philosophers, historians and newspaper proprietors - offer insights and perspectives on the history, status and craft of journalism.
Hapless Will Harding hadn't imagined leading a life of glamour. But when he's offered a job of bass player in brand new Brighton band Double Top, he finds it hard to resist. Particularly as the band's photographer is the stunningly sexy and slightly kooky Lauren Miles.
'Excellent - I inhaled it, I absolutely loved it!... it's moving, and funny...It's a beautiful, beautiful read...for anyone who wants to laugh and be charmed' CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN, BBC Radio 2 'Wonderfully funny, utterly charming and sharp as all Hell' SARAH MILLICAN 'Tom Allen is one of the funniest comedians in the UK, the best dressed man I know and now it turns out he is a superb writer. I hate him' JOSH WIDDICOMBE ~~~~~ 'When I was 16 I dressed in Victorian clothing in a bid to distract people from the fact that I was gay. It was a flawed plan.' No Shame is a very funny, candid and emotional ride of a memoir by one of our most beloved comedians. The working-class son of a coach driver, and the youngest member of the Noel Coward Society, Tom Allen grew up in 90s suburbia as the eternal outsider. In these hilarious, honest and heart breaking stories Tom recalls observations on childhood, his adolescence, the family he still lives with, and his attempts to come out and negotiate the gay dating scene. They are written with his trademark caustic wit and warmth, and will entertain, surprise and move you in equal measure.
The day had gone badly: Celtic had just lost to their Old Firm rivals Rangers in the 1999 Scottish Cup final, and now Alan Stubbs had to provide a sample for a random drugs test. Little did he know, but it would help save his life... The results of the test showed he had testicular cancer, and suddenly, at the age of 27 and at the peak of fitness, he realised that he had the biggest battle of his life in front of him. In this compelling and moving memoir, Stubbs recalls his despair at the time and explains how, with the support of family, friends and fans as well as terrific doctors, he pulled through to resume his career at the top. And what a career it was. First he helped Bolton Wanderers...
FIRST RUNNER-UP OF THE INAUGURAL 2019 CWIP PRIZE 'Original' Clare Mackintosh 'James Bond should retire now . . . puts the sass in assassin as it's never been done before' L. S. Hilton *** Killing Eve meets Stephanie Meyer's The Chemist in this 'unique' (Heat magazine) debut thriller. Meet Lex Tyler. She's a covert operative for Platform Eight, the assassination department of Her Majesty's Secret Service, and one of the very few women to successfully negotiate the old boy's network of the espionage world. She's smart, resourceful and very deadly - and she's not your average back-to-work mum. Her new assignment is a high-stakes hit. Her target: Russian oligarch Dmitri Tupolev. But the more she digs into his life, the more Lex wonders if there isn't a different game going on - one in which she might be an unsuspecting casualty. With her own family now to worry about, Lex needs to work out who is really pulling the strings, before she too becomes a loose end. In her world, failure is not an option. 'This unique novel is a thrilling ride' Heat magazine
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