I've written another book and this will be one of those that when you pick it up, you'll begin to regret it. You see, I don't read books; I read the Sun newspaper. Actually, that's a lie; because when I get to page three I can't let go of my cock, so I can't turn the pages.

Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In "Wishful Drinking," adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.

Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, "Wishful Drinking" is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

"Wishful Drinking," the show, has been a runaway success. "Entertainment Weekly" declared it "drolly hysterical" and the "Los Angeles Times" called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.

A new, updated edition of Christopher Sandford's classic biography of the band, The Rolling Stones is a gripping account of the band's remarkable 60 years at the top of the rock industry. In 1962 Mick Jagger was a bright, well-scrubbed boy (planning a career in the civil service), while Keith Richards was learning how to smoke and to swivel a six-shooter. Add the mercurial Brian Jones (who'd been effectively run out of Cheltenham for theft, multiple impregnations and playing blues guitar), the wryly opinionated Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, and the potential was obvious. During the 1960s and 70s the Rolling Stones were the polarising figures in Britain, admired in some quarters for their flamboyance, creativity and salacious lifestyles, and reviled elsewhere for the same reasons. Confidently expected never to reach 30, the band is now celebrating 60 years together with a European tour, Sixty, to mark the occasion. Of the original line-up, only Jagger and Richards remain, along with 'new boy' Ronnie Wood, who joined the band in 1975. In The Rolling Stones, Christopher Sandford tells the human drama at the centre of the Rolling Stones story. Sandford has carried out interviews with those close to the Stones, family members (including Mick's parents), the group's fans and contemporaries - even examined their previously unreleased FBI files. Like no other book before The Rolling Stones makes sense of the rich brew of clever invention and opportunism, of talent, good fortune, insecurity, self-destructiveness, and of drugs, sex and other excess, that made the Stones who they are.

'A masterpiece, as fresh and shocking as if it were written yesterday' Craig Brown "I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'." Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.

Thomas Hennell (1903-45) said his aim was to 'surprise his subject' - to capture the transient quality of the moment. In watercolour he found his perfect medium, producing work which was, as his fellow artist Edward Bawden said, 'fully expressive and technically perfect'. During an idyllic childhood in rural Kent Hennell discovered his love of the English countryside. He explored its fields, farms and woods, and later, travelling on a rusty old bicycle, developed an appreciation of England's traditions and crafts. Much of his work records the countryside in a state of change, imbuing his sense of loss with poetic intensity. In the early 1930s, Hennell suffered a severe breakdown and later described the three years he spent in mental hospitals in his memoir The Witnesses (1938), an astonishing document in a period when stigma still attached to mental illness. Hennell's remarkable talent for friendship survived his years of mental turmoil. Jessica Kilburn's new biography brings Hennell the man vividly to life through extracts from his letters to friends and personal accounts by people who knew him. As this richly illustrated book shows, the artist's final years were exceptionally productive. In 1943 Hennell was appointed an official war artist, yielding commissions in Iceland and northern Europe. After the pastoral evocations of inter-war England, his portrayal of war's brutality is shocking: devastated French towns, emaciated prisoners of war. At the war's end, Hennell received a final posting to the Far East. Tragically, he was caught up in the struggle for independence in Java and in late October 1945 disappeared in circumstances which Jessica Kilburn recreates more fully than in any previous account. Thomas Hennell was born into a remarkable generation of English artists that included Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Barbara Hepworth. His peers regarded him as one of their finest creative talents; Jessica Kilburn's sensitive and deeply researched new biography restores this unjustly neglected artist to his rightful place in the history of twentieth-century English art.

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the greatest rock memoirs of all time, Be My Baby is the true story of how Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ronnie Spector carved out a space for herself against tremendous odds amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond. With a new introduction by Ronnie Spector. Ronnie Spector's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, 'Be My Baby', stunned the world and shot girl group The Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon drowned out in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and lost in Ronnie and Phil's ensuing romance and marriage. Ronnie had to fight tooth and nail to wrest back control of her life, her music and her legacy. And while she regained her footing, Ronnie found herself recording with Stevie Van Zandt, partying with David Bowie and touring with Bruce Springsteen. Smart, humorous and self-possessed, Be My Baby is a whirlwind account of the twists and turns in the life of an artist. More than anything, Be My Baby is a testament to the fact that it is possible to stand up to a powerful abuser and start on a second - or third, or fifth - act.

Dana Gillespie, the award-winning first lady of the Blues has enjoyed an incredible life and career. Now, she has chronicled her exploits, and as anyone who knows Dana would expect, it is intelligent, insightful, outrageous, and funny. Detailing high points, low points and everything in-between, the book covers, amongst many other things, liaisons with David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Keith Moon, and the cream of 1960's rock royalty; Recording with Jimmy Page and Elton John; Performing as Mary Magdalene in the original London production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and as the Acid Queen in Tommy; Acting in films directed by Nicholas Roeg, Ken Russell and Mai Zetterling; Performing Shakespeare with Sir John Gielgud and Arthur Lowe; Topping the pop charts across Europe; Performing to an audience of one million people in India; And... oh yes... Being British junior waterski champion for 4 years!

Pursuing a dream instilled by early David Attenborough television adventures, a young man from the industrial northwest of England is advised at school to become a veterinary surgeon as a first step towards a career working with wild animals in Africa.

His misgivings about the values and justification of domestic veterinary practice are contrasted with a passion for wilderness and wildlife conservation. Early experiences in the vivid Uganda of Idi Amin are juxtaposed with life in a grey Pennines veterinary practice.

Eventually arriving as a veterinary officer in newly independent Botswana he finds adventure with wild animals as a veterinarian and later as an ecologist, survey pilot, game capture operator and even a safari hunter, becoming a passionate conservationist... all while starting the first veterinary practice in the country.

Black Sabbath is currently on The End Tour," which they have proclaimed as their final concert tour . Iron Man chronicles the story of both pioneering guitarist Tony Iommi and legendary band Black Sabbath, dubbed The Beatles of heavy metal" by Rolling Stone . Iron Man reveals the man behind the icon yet still captures Iommi's humour, intelligence, and warmth. He speaks honestly and unflinchingly about his rough-and-tumble childhood, the accident that almost ended his career, his failed marriages, personal tragedies, battles with addiction, band mates, famous friends, newfound daughter, and the ups and downs of his life as an artist. Everything associated with hard rock happened to Black Sabbath first: the drugs, the debauchery, the drinking, the dungeons, the pressure, the pain, the conquests, the company men, the contracts, the combustible drummer, the critics, the comebacks, the singers, the Stonehenge set, the music, the money, the madness, the metal.

With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renee Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who'd learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, "I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That's the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I'm heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day." The paperback edition has been revised, with a new preface by the author.

'A delight' Stylist 'Funny, real and caring' YOU Magazine 'Funny, irreverent and moving... everything you would expect from the thick-fringed presenter who's won a place in the nation's hearts' The Sun 'Full of hilarious insights' Vanity Fair A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Funny, moving and truthful... Quite Claudia Winkleman's warmth, humour, no-holds-barred attitude and smoky eye have made her the favourite broadcaster of millions and a much-loved household name. In this, her first ever book, Claudia invites us all into her world. She shares her observations on topics such as the importance of melted cheese, why black coats are vital, how it's never okay to have sex with someone who has an opinion on your date outfit, how nurses are our most precious national treasure, and why colourful clothing is only for the under 10s (if you're reading this sporting a bright red jumper and you're 9, great! If you're older, sorry). This is a love letter to life - the real, sometimes messy kind. Quite celebrates friendship, the power of art, the highs and lows of parenting, and of course, how a good eyeliner can really save your life. Heartfelt, wry and unmistakably Claudia, this book gets to the heart of what really matters. Claudia Winkleman's Quite was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 27th December 2020.