* * * WINNER OF THE 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR * * * 'I adored this book, and I could quote from it forever. It's real, odd, life-affirming, sharp, loving, and contains more than one reference to Arsenal FC' Nick Hornby,The Believer 'Adrian Mole meets Mary Poppins mashed up in literary north London . . . Enormous...

In the bestselling tradition of Sloan Crosley's I Was Told There'd Be Cake and Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, a collection of humorous essays on what it's like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits, and black as cool. My name is "J" and I'm awkward-and black. Someone once told me those...

Steven Gerrard is the former captain of Liverpool football team and of the England national football team, and is the only player ever to have scored in a FA cup final, a league cup final, a UEFA cup final and a champion's league final. His entire career, since 1998, has been spent at Anfield with Liverpool. In this book he charts his full playing...

On 11 September 2001, our world changed. The West's response to 9/11 has morphed into a period of exception. Governments have decided that the rule of law and human rights are often too costly. In On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti-who joined Liberty, the UK's leading civil rights organization, on 10 September 2001-explores why our fundamental rights an...

With insight and great wit, Emmeline's autobiography chronicles the beginnings of her interest in feminism through to her militant and controversial fight for women's right to vote. While Emmeline received a good education, attending an all-girls school and being expected to conform to social norms, she rebelled against conventional women's roles....

Aged 17, Kevin Bridges walked on stage for the first time and brought the house down. He only had a five-minute set but he discovered he really could earn a living from making people laugh. Kevin began life as a shy, nerve-ridden school-boy. Reaching his teens, he followed his true calling as the class clown. This was a guy going somewhere-off the...

As rates of depression and anxiety continue to rise in the modern world, one proposed remedy garnering growing attention is meditation, and mindfulness meditation in particular. This practical and accessible guide shows you how this practice can relieve stress and anxiety, encourage deep mental and physical relaxation, enhance creativity, and relea...

'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train...' In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been som...

It must seem strange to you that I've called a book Alanatomy. For anyone who has taken the time to see my stand-up performances or watched my chat show, 'Chattyman', knows that my body has hardly been kind to me - in fact there've been times when we've actually stopped talking to each other. Balding, myopic, often flaky with psoriasis, back fat th...

'Engaging, hilarious and practical - I will proudly proclaim myself a card-carrying member of the FFC' - Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and bestselling author of Lean In. Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett, read by Bahni Turpin. This is a call to arms. Are you aged zero to in...

Modern life can be baffling and chaotic. Is there any way of making sense of it? The answer, explains groundbreaking thinker Steven Levitt, lies in economics. Not ordinary economics, but freakonomics. It is at the heart of everything we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us daily: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, f...

'My namer is Maria Antonoinetta Fontana, but everyone call me Toni.' 'I'm Spike, sometimes known as stop thief or hey you.' 'Yeser, I know.' The sixth volume of Spike Milligan's off-the-wall account of his part in World War Two sees our hero doing very little soldiering. Because it's 1946. Rather, he is now part of the Bill Hall Trio-a 'Co...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Love, Tanya, the debut book from Youtube Fashion & Beauty guru Tanya Burr, read by Laura Riseborough. Tanya Burr is the UK's leading young voice in beauty and fashion and one of the country's biggest Youtube stars. Whether it's creating the perfect smoky eye or dressing well fo...

People today have more romantic options than at any point in human history, and thanks to social media, smartphones and online dating, our abilities to connect with these options are staggering. Yet we also have to face new and absurd dilemmas, such as what to think when someone doesn't reply to your text but has time to post a photo of a pizza on...

'It's all over, Von Arnheim has surrendered and he's very angry.' 'This could mean war...' The third volume of Spike Milligan's laugh-a-line account of life as a gunner in World War Two resumes on the eve of victory in North Africa. Now Britain's looniest war hero must combat some of the direst threats a soldier has ever faced-boredom ('Christ, I...

A voice is calling across the land, "Bombardier Milligan." "Bombadier Milligan is dead," I replied in a disguised voice. The voice replied, "Then he's going to miss his breakfast." The fourth volume of Spike Milligan's legendary account of his time in the army during World War Two begins as he and his regiment land in sunny Italy in 1943 (...

'I had not informed my parents of my return, I wanted it to be a lovely surprise; it was, for me, they were away...' The seventh and last volume of Spike Milligan's memoirs sees our hero returning from war and Italy...but to what? Aside from shooting large, inaccurate guns at Germans, all he has done for five long years is blow a trumpet, tell r...

'Keep talking, Milligan. I think I can get you out on Mental Grounds.' 'That's how I got in, sir.' 'Didn't we all.' The second volume of Spike Milligan's legendary recollections of life as a gunner in World War Two sees our hero into battle in North Africa-eventually. First, there is important preparation to be done: extensive periods of loiteri...

When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?' Sadly, a recy...

'Back to those haunting days in Italy in 1944, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, with lava running in great red rivulets down the slope towards us, and Jock taking a drag on his cigarette and saying, "I think we've got grounds for a rent rebate."' The fifth volume of Spike Milligan's unsurpassed account of life as a Bombardier in World War Two sees...

Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew's Very Short Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Britain is a sharp but subtle account of remarkable economic and social change and an even more remarkable political stability. Britain in 1789 was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, multilingual, and almost half Celtic. By 1914, when it faced its greatest test since...