Sonnet is a writer. She is a professional with a wide network of important contacts. She is athletic, creative and successful. She always remembers to send Christmas cards. Sonnet also likes to be caned. She likes to be humiliated. She likes to go into a room blindfolded with ten strangers and have them do whatever they want to her. Sonnet likes wh...

Actress Uzo Aduba - known for Emmy-winning roles in Orange Is the New Black and Mrs. America - grew up in one of the few Black families in a white Massachusetts suburb. But she and her siblings were also grounded by a fierce sense of belonging and worth that stemmed from their mother's powerful vision for her children, and by their connection to ge...

Bill Bailey has always had dogs, including a Patterdale terrier called Rocky who would travel with him in the van to his first shows and occasionally join him on stage. Fast forward a few decades and Bill has shared his home with a variety of birds, dogs, frogs, chameleons and an armadillo called Tommy. Animals have always been at the heart of an e...

From the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize, an extraordinary story of the meteoric rise and fall of George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham. As King James I’s favourite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, right-hand man and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best...

The 32nd fostering memoir from international bestseller Cathy Glass Struggling to cope with three young children, Janie turns to experienced foster carer Cathy Glass. Helping the family each morning, Cathy soon uncovers how dangerous their situation has truly become. Riley and his two little siblings, Jayden and Lola, are not safe at home. With all...

Candice Marie in Nuts in May. Beverly in Abigail’s Party. Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Pamela in Gavin & Stacey – we can all name a beloved, iconic character brought to life by the magnificent Alison Steadman. Growing up in post-war, working-class Liverpool, the young Alison – ever the entertainer – would address t...

John Donne lived myriad lives. Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral – and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the En...

Russell Watson was at the peak of his success as a much-loved classical singer. He had gone from humble beginnings, working in a factory making nuts and bolts in Salford to singing in working men's clubs to performing to stadiums filled with thousands of fans. But then tragedy struck. In 2006 and 2007 he was diagnosed with two brain tumours. In the...

A new millennium, and a new chapter for Michael Palin unfolds. With a Hemingway travel project testing his confidence, doubts creeping in about his abilities as a writer, the death of his great friend George Harrison and the last of his children leaving home, the dawn of the twenty-first century sees Michael at his most reflective yet.  Amidst this...

A radically honest and uplifting memoir about defying death and learning to live. Juno Roche was born into a working-class family in London in the '60s, who dabbled in minor criminality. School was a respite, but shortly after beginning their university course, Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence. Juno is a survivor; they outlived th...

In elite sport, the margin between victory and defeat is minuscule, and the pressure is immense. Chris has built a glittering sporting career on understanding these moments: how to feel for them, how to cope with them, how to make them count.Last year, he faced another life-changing moment. He found out that the ache in his shoulder was in fact a t...

How did little Jenny Hargreaves become Jenny Eclair and elbow her way into the male dominated world of 1980s stand-up? Daughter of Major Derek Hargreaves (spy?) and June Hargreaves (spy's wife?) sister of Sara (born to be Head Girl) and Ben (the usurper), Jenny's comedy career took off via drama school, cider, sausage rolls, sleeping with men who l...

Surprisingly little has been written about second-generation Bloomsbury who tantalised the original 'Bloomsburies' at Gordon Square parties with their captivating looks and provocative ideas. Young Bloomsbury introduces us to an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters, including novelist and music critic Eddy Sackville-West, 'who wore elaborat...

HRH The Duke of Kent has been at the heart of the British Royal Family throughout his life. His royal duties began when, in 1952, at the age of 16, he walked in the procession behind King George VI's coffin, later paying homage to The Queen at her coronation in 1953. No member of the Royal Family has spoken extensively of the modern reign and their...

A landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseasesA silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: these are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether....

Behind the humour, swearing, dogs and nonsense,  Never Enough is a no-holds-barred account of life through Pete Wicks' lens. He shares his mental health trials and approach to life - starting with his journey as a 16-year-old who had the words 'NEVER ENOUGH' tattooed across his body, a marker of a time of anger and sadness, but also of his struggle...

The second part of the best-selling novelist's dramatic autobiography about his time in the Gurkhas during the Second World War. This is the second part of John Masters's autobiography: how he fought with his Gurkha regiment during World War II until his promotion to command one of the Chindit columns behind enemy lines in Burma. Written by a best-...

The first of John Master's evocative memoirs about life in the Gurkhas in India on the cusp of WWII. John Masters was a soldier before he became a best-selling novelist. He went to Sandhurst in 1933 at the age of 18 and was commissioned into the Fourth Gurkha Rifles in time to take part in some of the last campaigns on the turbulent North-West Fron...

As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how his family history has influenced his view of the world, introducing us to his Windrush generation parents, a great grandfather who helped build the Panama C...

Funny, heart-wrenching, generous, and true, in Finding My Voice, Nadiya Hussain, shares the unforgettable memories and experiences that have made her the woman she is today. I am writing this for everyone who was told no. 'No, you are not rich enough. No, that is not credible. No, you can't. No, you won't. No, you are not allowed. No, that is not a...

When a plane crashes, a bomb explodes, a city floods or a pandemic begins, Lucy Easthope's phone starts to ring. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK PROFILED IN THE NEW YORKER, A TELEGRAPH AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR Lucy is a world-leading authority on recovering from disaster. She holds governments to account, supports...