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Alistair Cooke at the Movies
by Alistair CookeA wonderful entertainment that reflects Alistair Cooke's love affair with cinema, from his early days as a film critic to his iconic role as the host of Masterpiece Theatre Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Lauren Bacall, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe are just a few of the stars profiled, along with many directors, in this sparkling and comprehensive collection of reviews, interviews, and essays. Alistair Cooke's first radio talk at the BBC was in October 1934, and the subject was cinema. He had begun reviewing films in the 1920s as a Cambridge undergraduate. This anthology of his best film criticism and essays includes his many favorite subjects. In "The Symbol Called Garbo," Cooke reveals the woman behind the enigmatic screen goddess. James Cagney is identified as "one of the few technically perfect actors," while Charlie Chaplin was "the funniest clown alive." Shirley Temple's multi-million-dollar appeal is explained, as is the subtlety underpinning the slapstick humor of the Marx Brothers. Directors such as Frank Capra, Fritz Lang, and Cecil B. DeMille meet with Cooke's high praise, while Alfred Hitchcock evokes a more complicated reaction. Full of glamorous stars, provocative opinions, and fond memories, Alistair Cooke at the Movies is a very personal and captivating guide to the golden age of Hollywood and beyond.
All About "All About Eve": The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made!
by Sam StaggsTo millions of fans, All About Eve represents all that's witty and wonderful in classic Hollywood movies. Its old-fashioned, larger-than-life stars--including Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm--found their best roles in Eve and its sophisticated dialogue has entered the lexicon.But there's much more to know about All About Eve. Sam Staggs has written the definitive account of the making of this fascinating movie and its enormous influence on both film and popular culture. Staggs reveals everything about the movie--from who the famous European actress Margo Channing was based on to the hot-blooded romance on-set between Bette Davis and costar Gary Merrill, from the jump-start the movie gave Marilyn Monroe's career and the capstone it put on director Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's.All About "All About Eve" is not only full of rich detail about the movie, the director, and the stars, but also about the audience who loved it when it came out and adore it to this day.
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business
by Mel BrooksAt 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words. <P><P>“Laugh-out-loud hilarious and always fascinating, from the great Mel Brooks. What else do you expect from the man who knew Jesus and dated Joan of Arc?&”—Billy Crystal <P><P>For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny. <P><P>All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers&’ room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’s stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers. All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft. Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history. <P><P><b>A New York Times Best Seller</b>
All About the Dixie Chicks
by Ace CollinsJust two short years ago, The Dixie Chicks were practically unheard-of outside of Texas, but today, they're the hottest act in country music. The explosive popularity of their album Wide Open Spaces has rocketed the Chicks to the top of the charts, and in the last year alone, they have won three Grammys (Best Country Album, Best New Artist and Best Country performance by a duo or group with vocal), two Country Music Association awards and an American Music Award. Their new album is expected to do even better. Now, veteran country music writer Ace Collins has captured their whole inspiring story, from their early days playing to loyal fans in Dallas, right up to their current success and thrilling future!
All The Blue Moons At The Wallace Hotel
by Phoebe StoneIn a haunting, uplifting novel about having a dream come true, Fiona Hopper longs to be accepted. She dreams of performing in an upcoming dance recital, and for her family to emerge from the shadows of an unspoken tragedy.
All The Days of My Life (So Far): So Far
by Alison SweeneyYou think your life is nuts? Since I was sixteen, I've spent time on Death Row, tried to sell my baby sister on the black market, been stranded at the altar (repeatedly), lied about my son's paternity, and fought viciously with just about everybody in town. Well, okay, it wasn't really me--it was my character, Sami Brady on Days of Our Lives. But like Sami, I've had my share of struggles. I've been told I was fat, watched fellow actresses starve themselves, been cruelly rejected, and wondered if I would ever date. (Hey, the first time I kissed a boy was in front of a TV camera!) There was even a time when I hated myself. Sound familiar? This is my story. It's an account of my years on daytime's most popular soap, and of my life off-screen--the major ups and downs, the craziness of Hollywood, balancing work and play, looking for love, concerns about weight, peer pressure, and finally learning to accept myself for who I am. I'll tell you fun stories about myself and my co-stars. . . recollections of my most memorable scenes. . . and everything you've always wanted to know about Sami. I think you'll find a lot in these pages that will remind you of all the days of your life. . . and perhaps inspire you to follow your own dreams in the days to come. Alison Sweeney was born in Los Angeles, one of three children of a concert violinist mother and a business investor father. Her acting career began when she was four years old. Throughout her childhood, Alison appeared in numerous television commercials, as well television series including Friends, Simon & Simon, Webster, St. Elsewhere, and Tales from the Darkside. She had starring roles in the films The Price of Life and The End of Innocence. Alison joined the cast of Days of Our Lives as Sami Brady in 1993. In her years on the series, her character has evolved from a troubled teenager to a scheming villainess. In 2002, Alison won a fan-voted Emmy as America's Favorite Villain. She has also won the fan-voted Soap Opera Digest Award four times, and in 2001 was elected by the same publication as one of the Most Beautiful Women in Daytime Television. Soap Opera Weekly named Alison 1999's Breakout Performer of the year, and in Australia, she was voted "Best Bad Girl" in 2000 and 2001 by readers of Inside Soaps magazine. Alison lives in a suburb of Los Angeles with her husband, Dave.
All Dogs Great and Small: What I’ve learned training dogs
by Graeme HallThe Sunday Times bestseller Have you ever wished you could get the dog in your life to behave better?With experience of training over 5,000 dogs of every breed, Graeme Hall has formulated the golden rules that every dog owner needs to know and he's here to share them with you.In chapters on getting a puppy, kids and dogs, separation anxiety and so much more, Graeme recounts his hard-won, often hilarious success stories and reveals a solution for every dog-related worry. His simple, tried and tested lesson will help you understand your dog and drive better behaviours.The Dogfather has seen it all and he's here to share his secrets.
All Due Respect ... The Sopranos Changes Everything
by Alan Sepinwall"The Sopranos is the one [show] that made the world realize something special was happening on television. It rewrote the rules and made TV a better, happier place for thinking viewers, even as it was telling the story of a bunch of stubborn, ignorant, miserable excuses for human beings" (From All Due Respect…The Sopranos Changes Everything). In this chapter from the critically acclaimed book The Revolution Was Televised, Alan Sepinwall explores why The Sopranos was critical to ushering in a new golden age in television. Drawing on a new interview with creator David Chase, Sepinwall weaves fascinating behind-the-scenes details about the show with his trademark incisive criticism—including his theory on the controversial series finale.
All for Beauty: Makeup and Hairdressing in Hollywood's Studio Era (Techniques of the Moving Image)
by Adrienne L. McLeanEver wonder why so many stars and featured players, male or female, in movies of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” look like they just stepped out of a beauty parlor even if the story places them in a jungle, a hospital bed, or the ancient past? All for Beauty examines how and why makeup and hairdressing evolved as crafts designed partly to maintain the white flawlessness of men and women as a value in the studio era. The book pays particular attention to the labor force, exploring the power and influence of cosmetics inventor and manufacturer Max Factor and the Westmore dynasty of makeup artists but also the contributions of others, many of them women, whose names are far less known. At the end of the complex, exciting, and at times dismaying chronicle, it is likely that readers will never again watch Hollywood films without thinking about the roles of makeup and hairdressing in creating both fictional characters and stars as emblems of an idealized and undeniably mesmerizing visual perfection.
All The Gold In California and Other People, Places and Things
by Jeff Lenburg Larry GatlinFrom the book: His father's ancestors invented the Gatling gun. There were poets on his mother's side. Out of this marriage of machine guns and poetry came Larry Gatlin, a hard-driving, risk taking perfectionist with an appetite for destruction and a gift for writing songs that touched the heart of America. As lead singer for The Gatlin Brothers, he rode on a wave of success that included chart, Ding singles, sold out concerts, and music awards. "I was a hero," he says, "because hardworking, God-fearing, honest-to-goodness, dyed-in-the-wool country music fans said I was, and I loved it. My problem was, I loved it too much." With his phenomenal success came controversy. He was brash and outspoken, dogged by the press and continually at odds with the music industry. He would disappear for days, bingeing on cocaine and alcohol. In the mid-1980's, the reckless lifestyle finally caught up with him. "I went from hero to zero in a matter of minutes, it seems," he recalls.
All His Jazz: The Life & Death of Bob Fosse
by Martin Gottfried"All His Jazz" practically dances off the pages. "Harper's Bazaar"
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
by Terry Gross"I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air . . ."Now available in paperback--a selection of revealing interviews from the award-winning National Public Radio showOriginating from WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and heard on more than 450 NPR stations, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has become a daily habit with millions of listeners nationwide--a must for anyone hoping to keep up with what's happening in the arts. Over the last twenty years, Terry's guests have included our most significant writers, actors, musicians, comics, and visual artists.For her first collection, Terry has chosen more than three dozen timeless interviews that prove to be as lively on the page as they were on the radio. Her questions--probing yet sensitive--encourage revelations from figures as diverse as John Updike, Isabella Rossellini, Conan OBrien, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Cash, and Nicolas Cage. And in her introduction, the generally self-effacing host of Fresh Air does something she wouldnt dream of doing on the air--she reveals a thing or two about herself.
All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir
by Kathy Valentine&“Recounts in vivid detail the gloriously debauched path of the Go-Gos through early rock success . . . and the darkness that such freedom can breed.&” —Los Angeles Times Runner-up, Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction At twenty-one, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go&’s and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go&’s became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their debut, Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured the hit songs &“We Got the Beat&” and &“Our Lips Are Sealed.&” The record&’s success brought the pressures of a relentless workload and schedule culminating in a wild, hazy, substance-fueled tour that took the band from the club circuit to arenas, where fans, promoters, and crew were more than ready to keep the party going. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took Valentine from her childhood in Texas—where she all but raised herself—to the height of rock n&’ roll stardom, devastation after the collapse of the band that had come to define her, and the quest to regain her sense of self after its end. Valentine also speaks candidly about the lasting effects of parental betrayal, abortion, rape, and her struggles with drugs and alcohol—and the music that saved her every step of the way. &“An epic tour of honest storytelling. All I Ever Wanted is a raw look at the highs and lows of being high and low. Long live the Go-Gos!&” —Amy Poehler
All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir
by Kathy Valentine&“Recounts in vivid detail the gloriously debauched path of the Go-Gos through early rock success . . . and the darkness that such freedom can breed.&” —Los Angeles Times Runner-up, Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction At twenty-one, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go&’s and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go&’s became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their debut, Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured the hit songs &“We Got the Beat&” and &“Our Lips Are Sealed.&” The record&’s success brought the pressures of a relentless workload and schedule culminating in a wild, hazy, substance-fueled tour that took the band from the club circuit to arenas, where fans, promoters, and crew were more than ready to keep the party going. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took Valentine from her childhood in Texas—where she all but raised herself—to the height of rock n&’ roll stardom, devastation after the collapse of the band that had come to define her, and the quest to regain her sense of self after its end. Valentine also speaks candidly about the lasting effects of parental betrayal, abortion, rape, and her struggles with drugs and alcohol—and the music that saved her every step of the way. &“An epic tour of honest storytelling. All I Ever Wanted is a raw look at the highs and lows of being high and low. Long live the Go-Gos!&” —Amy Poehler
All I Ever Wrote: The Complete Works
by Ronnie BarkerRonnie Barker has long been known as one of Britain’s greatest comedy performers. But he was also responsible for writing much of the material he performed, often hiding the fact from the public by using a number of pen names. Showcasing the complete work of a true comic icon, All I Ever Wrote is a laugh-out-loud collection of sketches, monologues, songs, poems and scripts from every strand of Ronnie’s long and brilliant career. With gems like ‘Fork Handle’s,’ Three Classes’ and ‘Pismonouncers Unanimous', Ronnie’s clever writing, double entendres and spoonerisms will bring a smile to your face, as you rediscover some of the twentieth century’s finest comedy moments.
All in Good Time: A Memoir
by Jonathan SchwartzAll in Good Time is a luminous memoir about growing up in the shadow of the golden age of songwriting and Sinatra, from the celebrated radio personality and novelist Jonathan Schwartz."Dancing in the Dark." "That's Entertainment." "By Myself." "You and the Night and the Music." They are part of the American Songbook, and were all composed by Arthur Schwartz, the elusive father at the center of his son's beautifully written book.Imagine a childhood in which Judy Garland sings you lullabies, Jackie Robinson hits you fly balls, and yet you're lonely enough to sneak into the houses of Beverly Hills neighbors and hide behind curtains to watch real families at dinner. At the age of nine, Jonathan Schwartz began broadcasting his father's songs on a homemade radio station, and would eventually perform those songs, and others, as a pianist-singer in the saloons of London and Paris, meeting Frank Sinatra for the first time along the way. (His portrait of Sinatra is as affectionate and accurate as any written to date.)Schwartz's love for a married woman caught up in the fervor of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and his other relationships with both lovers and wives, surround his eventually successful career on New York radio.The men and women who have roles to play include Richard Rodgers, Nelson Riddle, Carly Simon, Jimmy Van Heusen, Bennett Cerf, Elizabeth Taylor, and, of course, Sinatra himself.Schwartz writes of the start of FM radio, the inception of the LP, and the constantly changing flavors of popular music, while revealing the darker corners of his own history.Most of all, Jonathan Schwartz embraces the legacy his father left him: a passion for music, honored with both pride and sorrow.
All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays
by David IvesThe world according to David Ives is a very add place, and his plays constitute a virtual stress test of the English language -- and of the audience's capacity for disorientation and delight. Ives's characters plunge into black holes called "Philadelphias," where the simplest desires are hilariously thwarted. Chimps named Milton, Swift, and Kafka are locked in a room and made to re-create Hamlet. And a con man peddles courses in a dubious language in which "hello" translates as "velcro" and "fraud" comes out as "freud."At once enchanting and perplexing, incisively intelligent and side-splittingly funny, this original paperback edition of Ives's plays includes "Sure Thing," "Words, Words, Words," "The Universal Language," "Variations on the Death of Trotsky," "The Philadelphia," "Long Ago and Far Away," "Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue," "Seven Menus," "Mere Mortals," "English Made Simple," "A Singular Kinda Guy," "Speed-the-Play," "Ancient History," and "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread."
All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents
by Rebecca KreftingA professor of American Studies—and stand-up comic—examines sharply focused comedy and its cultural utility in contemporary society.Outstanding Academic Title, ChoiceIn this examination of stand-up comedy, Rebecca Krefting establishes a new genre of comedic production, "charged humor," and charts its pathways from production to consumption. Some jokes are tears in the fabric of our beliefs—they challenge myths about how fair and democratic our society is and the behaviors and practices we enact to maintain those fictions. Jokes loaded with vitriol and delivered with verve, charged humor compels audiences to action, artfully summoning political critique. Since the institutionalization of stand-up comedy as a distinct cultural form, stand-up comics have leveraged charged humor to reveal social, political, and economic stratifications. All Joking Aside offers a history of charged comedy from the mid-twentieth century to the early aughts, highlighting dozens of talented comics from Dick Gregory and Robin Tyler to Micia Mosely and Hari Kondabolu. The popularity of charged humor has waxed and waned over the past sixty years. Indeed, the history of charged humor is a tale of intrigue and subversion featuring dive bars, public remonstrations, fickle audiences, movie stars turned politicians, commercial airlines, emergent technologies, neoliberal mind-sets, and a cavalcade of comic misfits with an ax to grind. Along the way, Krefting explores the fault lines in the modern economy of humor, why men are perceived to be funnier than women, the perplexing popularity of modern-day minstrelsy, and the way identities are packaged and sold in the marketplace.Appealing to anyone interested in the politics of humor and generating implications for the study of any form of popular entertainment, this history reflects on why we make the choices we do and the collective power of our consumptive practices. Readers will be delighted by the broad array of comic talent spotlighted in this book, and for those interested in comedy with substance, it will offer an alternative punchline.
All The Lonely People: From the Richard and Judy bestselling author of Half a World Away comes a warm, life-affirming story – the perfect read for these times
by Mike GayleLife is waiting to happen to Hubert Bird.But first he has to open his front door and let it in.In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship and fulfilment. But Hubert Bird is lying.The truth is day after day drags by without him seeing a single soul. Until, that is, he receives some good news - good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on.Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out.Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . . Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?From bestselling author Mike Gayle, All the Lonely People is by turns a funny and moving meditation on love, race, old age and friendship that will not only charm and uplift, but also remind you of the power of ordinary people to make an extraordinary difference.(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
All My Best Friends
by George Burns David FisherThe author recalls how he and his young friends broke into vaudeville and made it to stardom on radio, in films and on TV. He laces his story with anecdotes about his fellow performers.
All My Life: A Memoir
by Susan LucciForty years ago, when Susan Lucci first joined the cast of one of America's best loved soaps, All My Children, she had only expected to appear on the show every other Tuesday. But she quickly endeared herself to America playing the beautiful, mercurial, and often controversial character of Erica Kane. All this time, Lucci has held viewers' rapt attention as Erica underwent the first daytime television abortion, married and divorced more times than Elizabeth Taylor, became one of daytime's first working mothers, dealt with her AMC daughter's coming out and survived many of life's greatest tragedies as well as conducted many of TV's most fun-to-watch escapades. The secret to Erica's appeal is undoubtedly her ability to live life and reinvent herself in ways that the audience wishes they could too. Now in her long-awaited autobiography, Susan Lucci not only shares some of her favorite behind-the scenes moments on the show, she shares stories about her own personal metamorphosis off-camera, from an aspiring actress to a superstar. For the first time ever, she candidly opens up about the devastating car accident that could have cost her career And The heartache she endured after her miscarriage. She reveals the life lessons longtime friends taught her on her rise to fame, The secret to remaining youthful and what she has learned about love, romance, and partnership through a marriage that has spanned four decades. She also recalls the great joy that came with finally winning an Emmy in 1999 after eighteen previous nominations as well as the pressure and angst she felt before her epic win, The pleasure of taking Broadway by storm in Annie Get Your Gun And The test of her stamina and endurance that came with cha-cha-ing on prime time in Dancing with the Stars. Susan will also share how she has successfully balanced the needs of her family with the grueling demands of her career. Nicknamed "LaLucci" by her nightclub co-star Regis Philbin and named one of Barbara Walters's "Ten Most Fascinating People," Susan Lucci gives readers a rare and intimate look into life as a wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, singer, entrepreneur, seductive sensation, and iconic actress in what is destined to be the most uplifting memoir of year!
All of Me
by Michael Posner Anne MurrayIn this revealing autobiography, Canada's first lady of song, for the first time, tells the whole story of her astonishing 40-year career in show biz. It is a candid retrospective of the extraordinary success achieved, and the prices that had to be paid."After 'Snowbird' hit, I was swept up like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and catapulted into a strange new universe ... If I thought for a moment that I was really in control of events, I was deluded." Anne Murray. An unflinching self-portrait of Canada's first great female recording artist, All of Me documents the life of Anne Murray, from her humble origins in the tragedy-plagued coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia, to her arrival on the world stage. Anne recounts her story: the battles with her record companies over singles and albums; the struggle with drug- and alcohol-ridden band members; the terrible guilt and loneliness of being away from her two young children; her divorce from the man who helped launch her career, Bill Langstroth; and the deaths of two of her closest confidantes. The result is a must-read autobiography by Canada's beloved songbird.
All of Me: My Extraordinary Life - The Most Recent Autobiography by Barbara Windsor
by Barbara WindsorTHE HEART-WARMING AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY BARBARA WINDSOR CHRONICLING HER EARLY CHILDHOOD IN LONDON'S EAST END TO RECEIVING A DBE IN 2000'A whopping, no-holds-barred rollercoaster of a book' Mail on Sunday`Barbara Windsor emerges from these pages as a personality both strong and sunny' Sunday TelegraphBorn in the East End of London just before the war, Barbara Windsor made her first stage appearance at the age of 13. From her early roles as the original Carry On dolly bird to her longest role as Peggy Mitchell in the award-winning BBC drama EastEnders, her spectacular success in theatre, film and TV has made her a British icon - the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match.Here, for the first time, she talks in depth about the people and events that have shaped her career: her lonely childhood, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, her legendary affairs, how she never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish. This is the heart-warming story of a courageous woman and consummate performer who has always made sure the show goes on.'By living up to its title alone it makes a nonsense of every other showbiz bleat 'n' brag ever put to paper' Julie Burchill'Infinitely more interesting than the sentimental schmaltz we have read about her before' Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph
All of Me: My Extraordinary Life
by Barbara WindsorThis ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. Born in the East End of London just before the war, Barbara Windsor made her first stage appearance at the age of 13. From her early roles as the original Carry On dolly bird to her hit as Peggy Mitchell in the award-winning BBC drama EastEnders, her spectacular success in theatre, film and TV has made her a British icon - the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match. Here, for the first time, she talks in depth about the people and events that have shaped her career: her lonely childhood, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, her legendary affairs, how she has never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish. This is the heart-warming story of a courageous woman and consummate performer who has always made sure the show goes on.
All of Us with Wings
by Michelle Ruiz KeilThis young adult fantasy debut about love, found family, and healing is &“a fantastical ode to the Golden City&’s postpunk era,&” told through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl (Entertainment Weekly). &“Complex and beautiful, blending folklore, San Franciscan history, the music scene, vampires, magic . . . hard to put down.&” —School Library Journal Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rockstar family in one of the city&’s storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas&’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in the girl&’s tight-knit household, which operates on a free-love philosophy and easy warmth despite the band&’s growing fame. But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, as a concert afterparty rages in the house below, Xochi and Pallas perform a riot-grrrl ritual in good fun, accidentally summoning a pair of ancient beings bound to avenge the wrongs of Xochi&’s past. She would do anything to preserve her new life, but with the creatures determined to exact vengeance on those who&’ve hurt her, no one is safe—not the family Xochi&’s chosen, nor the one she left behind.