Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-09-13
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.46
Review Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World / Random House Audiobooks:
Publication date: 2006-09-15
RRP: £34.50
Price: £34.50
Review Darling Judi: A Celebration of Judi Dench / Story Sound:
Publication date: 2007-12-01
RRP: £35.50
Price: £37.49
Review A Seaside Practice: Tales of a Scottish Country Doctor / Soundings Audio Books:
Publication date: 2003-08-18
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.83
Review Nobby Stiles: After the Ball - My Autobiography / Hodder & Stoughton Audio Books:The euphoria of a small, balding character is the image people recall most happily of England's 1966 World Cup triumph. But, as After The Ball proves, far from being the genial uncle of our collective memory, Nobby Stiles was just 24 on that historic day at Wembley, a vindictive and vicious onfield hard man at the summit of the game-and only five years away from a bitter slide out of the big time into penury. Naturally there's plenty of 1966 in Stiles' autobiography After The Ball-much of it charmingly candid about the small humanities behind the legend-and plenty too on Stiles' hugely successful Manchester United career, touched by the tragedy of the Munich air disaster. But the darker side of a life in football-whether it be the love-hate relationships Stiles enjoyed and endured with bosses Matt Busby and Alf Ramsey, or the bloody Anglo-Argentine feuds at club and national level-are unexpected highlights. As is the honest appraisal of how and why life after football went so wrong for Stiles. Skint, and slogging round the country in jobs on the fringes of the game, when he was once football royalty, Stiles is honest enough to express the bitterness, resentment and hopelessness he felt, never more so than when sacked by Alex Ferguson after it had seemed United had rescued its former star from the wilderness. Stiles' collaborator, award-winning sports writer James Lawton, may well have given the recollections some structure and polish, but there is a real sense of immediacy and relish in the telling of even the more familiar tales. No doubt Stiles' late-blooming career on the after-dinner speaking circuit has played the major part in the process of reviewing and refining the story of his life in football, with the result that the personal and the humorous drive the narrative to happy effect, but "After The Ball" is no "great times, great mates" sleepwalk. As a player, so as a man: Stiles has plenty of bite. -Alex Hankin.
Creator: Sean Barrett
Publication date: 2005-01
RRP: £35.50
Price: £37.49
Review The Mystery of Olga Chekhova / ISIS Audio Books:
Creator: Patrick Girard Lawlor
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2006-04
Dewey code: 790
RRP: £18.84
Price: £24.93
Review Miles to Go: The Lost Years: An Intimate Memoir of Life on the Road with Miles Davis 1973-1983 / Blackstone Audiobooks:
Publication date: 2001-06-18
Dewey code: 291
RRP: £16.16
Price: £22.70
Review Pilgrim of the Heart: Stories of Neem Karoli Baba, Hanuman, and the Devotional Tradition of India / Sounds True Inc.,U.S.:
Creator: Sam Kelly
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2003-03-31
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £58.69
Price: £75.49
Review The Road to Nab End: An Extraordinary Northern Childhood / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Sian Jones
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2000-04-01
Dewey code: 790
Price: £6.99
Review Maximum Beck: The Unauthorised Biography of Beck (The Maximum Series) / Chrome Dreams:
Publication date: 2002-09-23
Price: £9.00
Review Spike Milligan: The Parkinson Interviews (Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Rob Johnstone
Publication date: 2001-10-01
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £6.99
Price: £6.99
Review Talking Heads: Great Speeches from the First Century of Recorded Sound (The Enlightenment) / Chrome Dreams:
Authors
- Bob McCabe
- Graham Chapman (Estate)
Publication date: 2003-09-25
Dewey code: 791
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.94
Review The Pythons' Autobiography By The Pythons (CD) (Monty Python) / Orion:That The Pythons by the Pythons is going to be an absolute treat is evident even from the book's blurb. The six men behind Monty Python's Flying Circus-the most influential of all British TV satires-are actually four Englishmen, one Welshman and an interloping American, and it's largely in the words of John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam that we're told about the fractious process through which one of the great glories of British TV and film came into being. Yes, Graham Chapman is here too, although sadly he died some years ago. The acerbic Chapman would have loved the frequent irreverent references to the fact that now he's dead. But nobody is spared in the hilarious introduction: its unsparing analyses of the post-Python careers of the participants would have most showbusiness types phoning their lawyers. But that's just one of the many joys in this chunky, arm-straining celebration of the glorious and surrealistic humour of the Monty Python team. Bob McCabe, the man who managed to corral the unruly members of the team here, has helped create this marvellous tome. It functions as a history of a well-loved comedy phenomenon, a biography of six extremely talented men and also a really eye-catching object: the book's design utilises the unmistakable animation style, created by Terry Gilliam, that was so much a part of the TV series and films. The iconoclastic attitude to the participants is perfect, but who would have accepted anything less from social critics as deadly as the Python team? In fact, the revelation here that they were often at each others' throats suggests that inter-Python conflict may have been the catalyst that produced their inimitable humour. The only problem with The Pythons by the Pythons is resisting the temptation to read it at a sitting. [+]-Barry Forshaw.
Authors
- Moira Johnston
- Trevor Rees-Jones
Publication date: 2003-08
RRP: £47.50
Price: £45.36
Review The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash and the Sole Survivor / Soundings:"Telling my story in a book is the last thing I ever dreamed I'd be doing", writes Trevor Rees-Jones in the introduction to his autobiography, The Bodyguard's Story. Rees-Jones's life changed irrevocably on the night of Saturday, August 31, 1997, when the car he was travelling in crashed in a certain Alma tunnel in Paris. The car contained no ordinary passengers-Rees-Jones was the bodyguard of Dodi Fayed, companion of Diana, Princess of Wales. Dodi, Diana and driver Henri Paul were all killed, leaving Rees-Jones as the sole survivor, fighting for his life having suffered appalling injuries. His face was crushed beyond recognition and had to be extensively reconstructed under expert surgical care. Rees-Jones left hospital after a month, intending to continue with his life as far as possible and his work for his employer, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed. Yet his situation became increasingly fraught in the wake of the death of the Princess of Wales, one of the late 20th-century's most potent icons. As the grief-stricken Fayed tried desperately to find someone to blame for the death of his son, it was only a matter of time before Rees-Jones became embroiled in the web of recriminations and accusations. The Bodyguard's Story tells the story of the summer leading up to the fatal accident; as Rees-Jones, speaking openly for the first time, describes a world of extreme wealth, paparazzi-dodging and the increasingly volatile situation between the press, Dodi, Diana and their minders as the summer dragged on. Realising his life could never return to what it had been, Rees-Jones aims to set the record straight with his first-hand account. [+]"They'd died on my shift, and I'll live with that for the rest of my life. But I look in the mirror every day and know that I did the best I could. " -Kate Weaver.
Creator: Norman Dietz
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-10-15
Dewey code: 973.41092
RRP: £50.49
Price: £31.59
Review For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions / Tantor Media, Inc:
Creator: Paul Marshall
Publication date: 2005-05-07
RRP: £19.99
Price: £21.98
Review A Boy Remembers and Boys Remember More / Channel Television:
Creator: Nancy McClean
Publication date: 2002-09-01
Dewey code: 920
Price: £6.99
Review *** USE B00004S7H1 ***: The Unauthorised Biography of "Oasis" (The Maximum Series) / Chrome Dreams:
Publication date: 2005-07-11
RRP: £6.99
Price: £8.98
Review "Coldplay" X-posed / Chrome Dreams:
Creator: Richard Stacey
Publication date: 2006-08-01
RRP: £39.50
Price: £41.49
Review The Farm / ISIS Audio Books:
Publication date: 2004-11-30
RRP: £11.02
Price: £13.01
Review Joyce (Life & Times) / Haus Publishing Limited:
Creator: Neville Jason
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2002-07-31
Dewey code: 709.4509024
RRP: £24.99
Price: £42.22
Review Lives of the Artists (Biography) / Naxos AudioBooks:
| Models & Brands:
Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Darling Judi: A Celebration of Judi Dench, A Seaside Practice: Tales of a Scottish Country Doctor, Nobby Stiles: After the Ball - My Autobiography, The Mystery of Olga Chekhova, Miles to Go: The Lost Years: An Intimate Memoir of Life on the Road with Miles Davis 1973-1983, Pilgrim of the Heart: Stories of Neem Karoli Baba, Hanuman, and the Devotional Tradition of India, The Road to Nab End: An Extraordinary Northern Childhood, Maximum Beck: The Unauthorised Biography of Beck (The Maximum Series), Spike Milligan: The Parkinson Interviews (Radio Collection), Talking Heads: Great Speeches from the First Century of Recorded Sound (The Enlightenment), The Pythons' Autobiography By The Pythons (CD) (Monty Python), The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash and the Sole Survivor, For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions, A Boy Remembers and Boys Remember More, *** USE B00004S7H1 ***: The Unauthorised Biography of "Oasis" (The Maximum Series), "Coldplay" X-posed, The Farm, Joyce (Life & Times), Lives of the Artists (Biography) |
