How To Eat Out - Giles CorenHow to Eat Out
Giles Coren

It has taken Giles Coren a lifetime to master the art of eating out. From a lonely childhood spent in pub car parks, peering in at a magical world of chickens in baskets and butter in little foil squares, to belching his way through taste clouds of prawn gas and chocolate air at ‘the best restaurant in the world’, to mock dog in Shoreditch, sperm sushi in Tokyo and delicious fricasseed field mouse in ‘Ancient’ Rome, Coren has experienced pretty much everything a restaurant can throw at you, and thrown it right back. Or at least caught it, sniffed it, and bagged it up for later.

Bad waiters, bum tables, little rip-offs, big cons, old fish, cheap meat, yesterday’s soup and tomorrow’s gastroenteritis… Coren tells you how to avoid the lot, and even come out of it with free champagne and a dish named after you by way of apology. It doesn’t matter if it’s fish and chips, takeaway pizza, a medieval banquet with Sue Perkins or a slap-up nosh at the Hotel de Posh, there is always a right way and wrong way to do it. How To Eat Out is a bit of both.

Continue reading


Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch AlbomTuesdays With Morrie
Mitch Albom

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying of ALS – or motor neurone disease – Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final ‘class’: lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

Continue reading


Eating for England - Nigel SlaterEating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table
Nigel Slater

Written in a style similar to that of Nigel Slater’s multi-award-winning food memoir ‘Toast’, this is a celebration of the glory, humour, eccentricities and embarrassments that are The British at Table.

The British have a relationship with their food that is unlike that of any other country. Once something that was never discussed in polite company, it is now something with which the nation is obsessed. But are we at last developing a food culture or are we just going through the motions? ‘Eating for England’ is an entertaining, detailed and somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of the British and their food, their cooking, their eating and how they behave in restaurants, with chapters on — amongst other things — dinner parties, funeral teas, Indian restaurants, dieting and eating whilst under the influence.

Written in Nigel Slater’s trademark readable style, ‘Eating for England’ highlights our idiosyncratic attitude towards the fine art of dining.

Continue reading


A Street Cat Named Bob - James BowenA Street Cat Named Bob
James Bowen

When James Bowen found an injured, ginger street cat curled up in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, he had no idea just how much his life was about to change. James was living hand to mouth on the streets of London and the last thing he needed was a pet.

Yet James couldn’t resist helping the strikingly intelligent tom cat, whom he quickly christened Bob. He slowly nursed Bob back to health and then sent the cat on his way, imagining he would never see him again. But Bob had other ideas.

Soon the two were inseparable and their diverse, comic and occasionally dangerous adventures would transform both their lives, slowly healing the scars of each other’s troubled pasts.

Continue reading


Wedding Babylon - Imogen Edwards-JonesWedding Babylon
Imogen Edwards-Jones

Why are weddings so expensive? What makes people spend a year’s wages on one Big Day? And just how Big does your Day actually have to be? Does getting married on a shoestring make your nuptials any less romantic than Daddy dropping a cool £7m and hiring Beyoncé?

What are the big no-nos? Do bridesmaids’ dresses always have to be so hideous? Does the bride have to cry? When does Mumzilla turn up? And does the best man’s speech really need to be so awful?

Packed with scandal, stories and intrigue, Wedding Babylon lifts the lid on the excesses of an industry where emotions run high, money flows like champagne and £3,000 cakes are made of polystyrene. Following a week in the life of a busy wedding planner, and based entirely on true but anonymous stories, Imogen Edwards-Jones takes you behind the scenes on what is supposed to be the happiest day of anyone’s life.

Hilarious, shocking and thoroughly entertaining, here is definitive proof that sadly the course of true love never did run entirely smooth…

Continue reading


An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl PilkingtonAn Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington
Karl Pilkington

Presenting the Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington: Adventurer. Philosopher. Idiot.

Karl Pilkington isn’t keen on travelling. Given the choice, he’ll go on holiday to Devon or Wales or, at a push, eat English food on a package holiday in Majorca. Which isn’t exactly Michael Palin, is it? So what happened when he was convinced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Travel broadens the mind, right? You’d think so…

Find out in Karl Pilkington’s hilarious travel diaries.

Continue reading


Theater Geek - Mickey RapkinTheater Geek: The Real Life Drama of a Summer at Stagedoor Manor, the Famous Performing Arts Camp
Mickey Rapkin

What do Natalie Portman, Robert Downey, Jr., Zach Braff and Mandy Moore have in common? Before they were stars, they were campers at Stagedoor Manor, the premier summer theater camp for children and teenagers.

When Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ and self-proclaimed theater fanatic, learned about this place, he fled Manhattan for an escape to upstate New York. At Stagedoor, he tracked a trio of especially talented and determined teen actors through their final session at camp.

Theater Geek leads readers through the triumphs and tragedies of the three senior campers’ final summer in an absorbing, thought-provoking narrative that reveals the dynamic and inspiring human beings who populate this world. Through the rivalry, heartbreak, and joy of one summer at Stagedoor Manor, Rapkin offers theater geeks of all ages a dishy, illuminating romp through the lives of serious child actors.

Continue reading