Read the full, enthralling story of the 20-something London girl who took the music world by storm. Topping the charts for weeks on end and winning consistent international critical acclaim, Adele already has a host of awards and record-breaking achievements to her name. Find out about her upbringing as the child of a single mother in north London and her time at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon where her peers included Leona Lewis and Jessie J. Learn how her early performances after graduating from the BRIT school along with a MySpace demo led to her being signed up XL Records, and then voted the Brit Awards Critics' Choice even before her debut album, 19, was released. Discover how real-life heartbreak inspired many of her iconic songs, including 'Rolling in the Deep' and 'Someone Like You'; and how a diverse range of musical influences - from the Spice Girls and Gabrielle to Etta James and contemporary Nashville sounds - contributed to her record-smashing second album, 21. This fully updated paperback edition of the bestselling biography also now includes the story of how Adele found happiness with boyfriend (and rumoured husband) Simon Konecki; became a mother; and came to record the towering theme song for the James Bond movie, Skyfall.

There's something about Jane... Jane Austen lived only just into her forties, never married, never had children, lived all her life in the south of England and rarely strayed far from the genteel and orthodox social circle into which she was born. She completed only six novels, and achieved little fame in her lifetime. Yet 200 years after her death, she remains one of our most revered writers, and one of the most regularly adapted for television and film. Her novels are beloved by readers all over the world who continue to be inspired, beguiled and delighted by her often comic, and always shrewd insights into the calculations, and complexities of human hearts and minds. This short biography aims to get to the heart of the enigmatic woman who was Jane Austen, and to the enduring qualities in her work which make it so universally loved and admired.