British Memoirs

Affectionately dubbed "the Jewel in the Crown of the Tetbury Advertiser" by its ever-patient editor, Debbie Young has been a regular columnist for this award-winning community magazine since 2010. In its ten issues per year, she shares her homespun philosophy and wry English humour with its loyal readers. This collection brings together her columns from 2010-2015, charting history in the making as it affects local residents, and giving her whimsical perspective on the wider world from the heart of the Cotswolds.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock's life changed overnight when she became part of the first ever girl band to win the X-Factor. The multi-platinum selling supergroup Little Mix, went on to become one of the biggest girl bands of all time. Launched into chart-topping global fame, Leigh-Anne was living her childhood dream of becoming a popstar. But behind the scenes, as a Black woman within an industry and team with little diversity, Leigh-Anne was struggling with her identity and felt completely lost. In her highly anticipated memoir, Leigh-Anne shares her journey.

Well-known as the winner of the third series of The Great British Bake Off and runner up of Strictly Come Dancing with his same-sex dance partner Johannes Radebe, John Whaite's personal story is a complicated narrative of contradictions, highs and lows, told with tenderness, joy, insight and wit, but also unflinching honesty.

What makes a boy tick? Has our view of boys evolved as society has changed? Is boyishness in the genes or learned after birth? John Redwood shares with the reader his experiences as a young boy growing up in post War Britain when boys were told to be boys. With an unusually long memory of childhood stretching for him back into the pram he takes us through what it felt like to be a baby then a boy responding to the adult world around him. Sitting on a chair was an exercise in mountaineering. Trying those first steps instead of crawling fast around the floors were dogged by fears of falling ...

Born on Christmas Day, 1936, Princess Alexandra's birth was almost overshadowed by the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII. Yet public affection for this new addition to the Royal Family has only grown during a lifetime of dedicated royal service. In this biography, Helen Cathcart chronicles the first thirty years of Princess Alexandra's life, from the tragic death of her father when she was just five years old to her wartime childhood at Badminton living with her grandmother Queen Mary.

A top-10 list is nobody’s perfect tool, especially when trying to measure up 10 of the most significant and influential bands of the British Invasion. Nevertheless, this book presents 10 biographies of classic bands of the era widely regarded as the best of the best, putting their contributions to music in sharp focus. And what contributions they have made! Over half a century later, their songs still ring out on radios, their names are well-known to many, and songs released today are inspired by the music they produced.

The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions: printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error.

Harold Shipman was one of Britain’s most prolific serial killers, who killed hundreds of his own patients before he was caught. This book looks at the case in detail and tells you everything you need to know about this mass murderer for the first-time ever. It starts by looking at how he began practicing medicine, excelling beyond anyone’s expectations. The author dives into all aspects of Shipman’s crimes for this gripping story that will have glued to your seat all the way to the end.

As far as the public knew, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) did not exist. After the defeat of the French Army and Britain's retreat from the Continent in June 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the top-secret espionage operation to "set Europe ablaze". Of the many brave men and women conscripted, two Anglo-American recruits, the Starr brothers, stood out to become legendary figures to the guerillas, assassins, and saboteurs they led.

One was a married American socialite who embarked on a scandalous affair with the future king of England. Another was an aristocratic ingenue whose winsome charm captured the world’s imagination. And the third was a thirty-something actress whose outspokenness put her on a collision course with the British public. The marriages of Wallis Simpson, Diana Spencer, and Meghan Markle into the British royal family sparked a series of crises that at times seemed to threaten the future of the monarchy itself.

What can a boy get up to? The London suburbs, 1980. Chris was no stranger to a sense of purpose; to right and wrong. His days followed a course formed by school, music, sport, and his rambunctious peers, but he itched for more than just a comfortable life. He dived headfirst into mischief and mayhem; finding athleticism, girls, and chance romance. Sandy beaches and craggy mountains beckoned, and a cheeky travel trip around Europe by train; and he endured trials on the way to becoming an elite parachutist. Could he seek meaning and learn resilience, despite the setbacks and turmoil of ...

"As the depth of truth of one's life can only be penned upon the pages of a diary, Jane Digby leads us through her passionate life . . . A wonderful piece of historical fiction that will delight your senses as well as your heart." - Peggy Lee Sprague, author of The Truth Hunters series. Jane Digby's Diary continues with Volume Three: Following an Eastern Star. Based on a true story . . . Bright, beautiful, and bold, Jane Digby led a remarkable life. Born to privilege in 1807 at Dorset, England, she soon scandalized Europe with her reckless pursuit of freedom. Kings, princes, barons, ...

Joe Jackson is a life-long Scott Walker fan who, after interviewing Leonard Cohen in 1985, became an interviewer "purely to talk with more of my heroes," he says. First on his list was Scott Walker, when they finally did the interview a decade later, Walker thanked Jackson for a review he did of the Climate of Hunter album in 1984 and said it helped him redefine for himself how his music could best be described at that point. They did two in-depth interviews, unlike any ever given by Scott Walker. Both interviews, plus the backstory, will be in the second digital magazine in this two-part ...

The never-before-published diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard - who spent her teenaged years living out World War II in Windsor Great Park with her close friends Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth, the future queen of the United Kingdom - provide an extraordinary and intimate look at the British royal family.

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are responsible for the murder of five children – after sexually assaulting and torturing them. The couple was initially convicted of three murders, later they confessed to two more. The body of one victim, Keith, has never been found. Ian Brady was declared insane in 1985, while Myra was repeatedly called the most evil woman in the UK.

In Too Much, with his trademark wit and insight, Tom Allen takes a funny and moving look at how he's been thrown into adulthood, as he finally leaves the family home and starts a relationship with a new boyfriend. He shares his unwillingness to move on from the arrested development of millennial life. But ultimately, he has to grow up fast in the wake of the unexpected death of his father in late 2021.The audiobook becomes an emotional ode to his beloved dad and how you learn to navigate grief.

The Royal Waterloo Hospital, London in the 1960s. Six young women lie asleep on low beds. Day and night no longer exist, extinguished by a potent cocktail of antipsychotic, sedative and anti-depressant drugs. The women are taken from their beds by the nurses and given electroconvulsive therapy before being put to sleep again. All under the watchful eye of Dr William Sargant.

J. R. R. Tolkien, an orphan in love with words, spent most of his life as an unassuming Professor of Literature at Oxford studying and teaching old languages. During his time there, he created his very own languages and a mythological world, Middle-earth. Middle-earth was inhabited by Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other fascinating creatures. It was a world that became almost more real to Tolkien than the one he lived in. Tolkien’s two masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have set the standard in mythological literature.

Samuel Kasumu was the most senior black advisor in Boris Johnson's government, until he left in April 2021. Throughout his time in Whitehall, Samuel became increasingly aware that he was an outsider - that his own experiences, assumptions and language were so different to many of those he found himself surrounded by in Downing Street.

Sid Vicious: One Junkie, One Knife, and No Fuckin’ Future is a raw, unapologetic look into the short, explosive life—and death—of punk rock’s most infamous icon. Told in a brutally honest, darkly sardonic voice, this book mixes biography with postmortem narration to deliver an unfiltered account of Sid Vicious, bassist for the Sex Pistols, and the chaos he embodied. From the gritty streets of 1970s London to the bloodstained floors of the Chelsea Hotel, this is more than a music biography—it’s a ghost’s confessional. Readers are taken inside the rise and collapse of the Sex ...