This book, thanks to Ken's wife, Lady Dodd, gives the first ever in-depth account of his astonishing story, and unravels 'the other Ken Dodd' - the fascinating, kind and complicated private man with whom she spent her life. Sir Ken Dodd was a national institution. He worked tirelessly as one Britain's most popular comedians for a staggering seven decades. His five hour stage shows were legendary, and he was still performing these hilarious theatrical marathons right up to the age of ninety. Ken was the comedian's comedian. Fellow pros idolised him and looked up to him as the guv'nor. He was also a talented ballad singer, and enjoyed a hugely successful chart-topping career in the 1960s. In fact his was the only name, apart from The Beatles, to appear in the top five best-selling singles of that iconic pop music decade. Despite his nationwide fame and his crazy, larger-than-life stage persona, he was actually a very private person, away from the limelight. A quiet, well-read, deeply religious thinker. He consciously separated 'the two Ken Dodds', as he referred to them, and always declined to cooperate with biographers, in order to keep the private Ken Dodd just that - private. If you liked Ken Dodd you will love this book. It will undoubtedly surprise and delight you.

The autobiographical narrative of Anne, Lady Halkett. Born in the early 1620s, Anne, Lady Halkett (nee Murray) grew up on the fringes of the English court during a period of increasing political tension. From 1644 to 1699, Halkett recorded her personal and political experiences in both England and Scotland in a series of manuscript meditations and an autobiographical narrative called A True Account of My Life. Royalism, romance, and contemporary religious debates are central to Halkett's vivid portrayal of her life as a single woman, wife, mother, and widow. Collectively, the materials edited here offer the opportunity to explore how Halkett's meditational practice informed her life writing in the only version of her writings to date available in a fully modernized edition. The forty-four meditations in this volume redefine the importance of Halkett's contribution to seventeenth-century life writing.