Autobiographies and biographies 6 - RNIB Library > Home



Autobiographies and biographies 6Talking BooksThe titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email helpline@.uk.You can search our online catalogue and add titles directly to your wish list by visiting . You can log onto your account in the My Library section with your customer number and pin number. These can be obtained from Helpline. For any further help in selecting books please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 5333 or email libraryinfo@.uk ContentsEntertainment page 2Authors and journalistspage 5Artists and musicianspage 7Sciencepage 9Politicalpage 9Royaltypage 11Religionpage 13Sportpage 13Warpage 14Courage and inspirationpage 16Miscellaneouspage 19EntertainmentBaker, Danny. Going to sea in a sieve: the autobiography. 2012. TB22415.Danny Baker was born in Deptford, in June 1957, and from an early age was involved in magazine journalism, with the founding of fanzine 'Sniffin' Glue', alongside friend Mark Perry. From there he moved to documentary series for LWT and over the years worked on a variety of quiz shows (Win, Lose or Draw, Pets Win Prizes, TV Heroes), as well two television commercials which made him a household name - Daz and Mars Bars. This book charts Danny's showbiz career, the highs and lows, and everything in between, including the accusation that he killed Bob Marley.Read by Danny Baker. 9 hours 53 minutes. TB22415.Bellingham, Lynda. There's something I've been dying to tell you. 2014. TB23220.In 2013, actress, television personality and bestselling author, Lynda Bellingham was diagnosed with cancer. In this memoir, Lynda talks with beautiful poignancy about her life since her diagnosis, her family and how together they came to terms with a future they hadn't planned. This is a brave and brutally honest memoir, and Lynda manages to spread her infectious warmth and humour bringing light to a very dark time.Read by Sue Holderness. 8 hours. TB23220.Clark, Colin. My week with Marilyn: the prince, the showgirl and me: my week with Marilyn. 2011. TB22719.In 1956, fresh from Eton and Oxford, the 23-year-old Colin Clark (son of 'Lord Clark of Civilisation', brother of maverick Tory MP and diarist Alan) worked as a humble 'gofer' on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that disastrously united Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe. This is the story of one week, which was a delicious idyll in which Clark escorted a Monroe desperate to escape from the pressures of stardom.Read by Eddie Redmayne. 3 hours 28 minutes. TB22719.Coles, Richard. Fathomless riches. 2014. TB22414.The Reverend Richard Coles is a parish priest in Northamptonshire and a regular host of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live. He is also the only vicar in Britain to have had a number 1 hit single: the Communards' 'Don't Leave Me This Way' topped the charts for four weeks and was the biggest-selling single of its year. Fathomless Riches is his remarkable memoir in which he divulges with searing honesty and intimacy his pilgrimage from a rock -and-roll life of sex and drugs to a life devoted to God and Christianity.Read by Richard Coles. 10 hours 1 minute. TB22414.Coveney, Michael. Maggie Smith: a biography. 2015. TB22695.No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain's best-loved actors. This biography shines the stage-lights on the life and work of a truly remarkable performer, one whose career spans six decades. Read by Sian Thomas. 14 hours 13 minutes. TB22695.Davies, Dan. In plain sight: the life and lies of Jimmy Savile. 2014. TB21660.Davies has spent more than a decade on a quest to find the real Jimmy Savile, and interviewed him extensively over a period of seven years before his death. In the last two and a half years, Dan has been interviewing scores of people, many of them unobtainable while Jimmy was alive. What he has discovered was that Jimmy Savile was not only complex, damaged and controlling, but cynical, calculating and predatory.Read by John Banks. 17 hours 42 minutes. TB21660.Dunham, Lena. Not that kind of girl: a young woman tells you what she's "learned". 2014. TB22220.Lena Dunham illuminates the experiences that are part of making one’s way in the world: falling in love, feeling alone, being ten pounds overweight despite eating only health food, having to prove yourself in a room full of men twice your age, finding true love, and most of all, having the guts to believe that your story is one that deserves to be told. Not That Kind of Girl is a series of dispatches from the frontlines of the struggle that is growing up. Contains strong language.Read by Lena Dunham. 6 hours 11 minutes. TB22220.Harding, Mike. The adventures of the Crumpsall kid: a memoir. 2015. TB22661.For a while Mike Harding was the leader of the Crumpsall Father Christmas and Tooth Fairy Cult but he gave that all up when he discovered that Dan Dare and girls were more interesting. Warm, nostalgic, and very funny, Mike Harding's memoir of his early life in post-war Manchester is as idiosyncratic and engaging as the man himself.Read by Philip Betherton. 9 hours 17 minutes. TB22661.Jacobi, Derek. As luck would have it: my seven ages. 2013. TB21413.The world of theatre could not have been further from Sir Derek Jacobi’s childhood: an only child, born in Leytonstone, London, his father was a department store manager and his mother a secretary. Nonetheless he always knew he was going to be an actor. He has worked continuously throughout his career, but it is his numerous Shakespearean roles that have gained him worldwide recognition.Read by Derek Jacobi. 9 hours 48 minutes. TB21413.Moore, Lucy. Nijinsky. 2014. TB21923.Nijinsky's story has lost none of its power to shock, fascinate and move. Adored and reviled in his lifetime, his phenomenal talent was shadowed by schizophrenia and an intense but destructive relationship with his lover, Diaghilev. 'I am alive' he wrote in his diary, 'and so I suffer'. Read by Jane McDowell. 11 hours 24 minutes. TB21923.Myers, Dave. Blood, sweat and tyres. 2015. TB23255.The Hairy Bikers are known for their best-selling cookbooks, and now they are here to tell you how it all started. They had fantastically rich northern childhoods, laced with food and fun, but also some tragedy. We find out how their friendship developed and all of the round-the-world trips they went on.Read by Si King and Dave Myers. 10 hours 24 minutes. TB23255.Norton, Graham. The life and loves of a he devil. 2014. TB23002.Graham Norton has been having fun with some of the world's biggest stars for nearly 20 years. 'The Life and Loves of a He Devil' is Graham's funny and honest memoir on the theme of love, telling his story from his Irish childhood to the present day, describing just what and who he loved, and sometimes lost, as a young boy, and his new loves and obsessions, big and small, as he's grown older.Read by Graham Norton. 7 hours 1 minute. TB23002.O'Grady, Paul. Open the cage, Murphy. 2015. TB22752.The first books in Paul O'Grady's life story have covered his early years growing up in Birkenhead, his first forays onto the stage and the birth of his legendary comic creation, Lily Savage. Now it's finally time for him to bring the story up to date and tell the world the mind-blowing behind-the-scenes tales of celebrity life: the parties, the glamour, the booze. Read by Peter Kenny. 8 hours 50 minutes. TB22752.Perkins, Sue. Spectacles. 2015. TB23505.Sue Perkins has been charming the nation with her own unique brand of wit since the mid-90s. Alongside long-term presenting partner Mel Giedroyc, she has worked on numerous television projects including BBC1's 'The Great British Bake Off'. She also regularly pops up on the nation's favourite television and radio panel shows and has sold out two stand-up tours. Read by Sue Perkins. 8 hours 46 minutes. TB23505.Sellers, Robert. Peter O'Toole: the definitive biography. 2015. TB22958.Peter O'Toole was supremely talented, a unique leading man and one of the most charismatic and unpredictable actors of his generation. Described by Richard Burton as 'the most original actor to come out of Britain since the war', O'Toole regularly seemed to veer towards self-destruction. With the help of exclusive interviews with colleagues and close friends, this book paints a complete picture and reveals what drove him to extremes, why he drank to excess and hated authority. Contains swear words.Read by Bob Rollett. 13 hours 43 minutes. TB22958.Winstone, Ray. Young Winstone. 2015. TB22513.Actor Ray Winstone spent the early years of his life playing on the bomb -sites of Plaistow. At the age of eight , his family moved him up the A10 to the cultural wasteland of Enfield, and from that moment on, Ray was constantly looking for ways to get back home to the East End – from "banging up" on his dad's market stalls, to winning 80 out of 88 bouts as a three-time London schoolboy boxing champion for Bethnal Green's famous Repton club. Ray Winstone takes the reader on an unforgettable tour of a cockney heartland. Contains swear words.Read by David John. 7hours 53 minutes. TB22513.Authors and journalistsBate, Jonathan. Ted Hughes: the unauthorised life. 2015. TB 22707.Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. At the centre of this book is Hughes’s lifelong quest to come to terms with the suicide of his first wife, Sylvia Plath. Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, his book offers for the first time the full story of Ted Hughes's life as it was lived, remembered and reshaped in his art.Read by Mike Grady. 25 hours 36 minutes. TB 22707.Briggs, Raymond. Notes from the sofa. 2015. TB23015.In 'Notes from the Sofa', Raymond Briggs traces the course of his life in a series of wonderfully observed vignettes that take him from the awkwardness and embarrassment of growing up to the vicissitudes and frustrations of growing old. This collection features the best pieces from Briggs' regular column, 'Notes from the Sofa', in The Oldie, Richard Ingrams' humorous monthly magazine.Read by Raymond Sawyer. 6 hours 8 minutes. TB23015.Byrne, Fergus. More lives than one: the extraordinary life of Felix Dennis. 2015. TB22555.Canny, infuriating, cynical and generous by turns, Felix Dennis was a true one-off. When he died in 2014 he was a multi-millionaire. Yet he spent his last months writing poetry and planting the millionth tree in his own forest. Journalist Fergus Byrne got to know him well and was granted exclusive access to Dennis's archives and papers. He found everything had been kept and, along with hours of interviews with girlfriends, family, staff and friends the world over, he here presents the only authorised biography of a man who described himself as lucky to have led several lives.Read by Mike Ahern. 13 hours 26 minutes. TB22555.Crawford, Robert. Young Eliot: from St Louis to The waste land. 2015. TB22871.This book traces the life of T. S. Eliot from his childhood in the ragtime city of St Louis right up to the publication of his most famous poem, 'The Waste Land'. Young Eliot portrays a brilliant, shy and wounded American who defied his parents' wishes and committed himself to life as an immigrant in England, authoring work astonishing in its scope and hurt.Read by Mark Elstob. 21 hours 56 minutes. TB22871. Fraser, Antonia. My history: a memoir of growing up. 2015. TB22756.Antonia Fraser's memoir of growing up has a double purpose. It is partly an attempt to recapture the experiences of her Oxford childhood and youth. But it is also intended as a chronicle of the progress of her love of history since her first discovery of it as a private pleasure when she was a child in the 1930s, her history, as she believed it to be, for the study of history has always been an essential part of the enjoyment of life.Read by Joanna Mackie. 11 hours 38 minutes. TB22756.Howard, Elizabeth Jane. Slipstream: a memoir. 2003. TB22948.In this candid and revealing memoir, Elizabeth Jane Howard looks back over her eventful life, from her private education at home, through brief spells as an actress and model, to developing a successful career as a novelist. As well as giving a highly personal insight into the author's life, she illuminates the literary world of the latter half of the 20th century.Read by Helen Bourne. 21 hours 59 minutes. TB22948.James, Clive. The blaze of obscurity. 2010. TB22687.Unreliable memoirs; book 5. 'The Blaze of Obscurity' is the fifth volume of the author's memoirs. This volume takes a behind the scenes look at the television industry and the work involved in producing a television show. Clive James recounts many of his interviews with celebrities, including those that worked and the ones that turned out disastrously.Read by Phillip Pope. 12 hours 14 minutes. TB22687.Parini, Jay. Every time a friend succeeds something inside me dies: the life of Gore Vidal. 2015. TB22952.An intimate yet frank biography of Gore Vidal, one of the most accomplished, visible and controversial American novelists and cultural figures of the past century. The product of thirty years of friendship and conversation, Parini's biography probes behind the glittering surface of Vidal's colourful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. There is plenty of glittering surface as well, a virtual Who's Who from Eleanor Roosevelt on down.Read by John Chancer. 18 hours 56 minutes. TB22952.Sullivan, Rosemary. The red shoes: Margaret Atwood starting out. 2002. TB22574.A biography of Margaret Atwood's journey towards literary stardom. Her early life in northern Ontario, her education, and her start in writing are all discussed from a practical and an artistic point of view. Sullivan reveals the discrepancy between Atwood's cool, acerbic, public image and the down-to-earth, straight-dealing and generous woman who writes the books. She weaves the issues of female creativity, authority and autonomy set against the backdrop of a generation of women coming of age during one of the most radically shifting times in contemporary history.Read by Harriet Lampert. 13 hours 3 minutes. TB22574.Shapiro, James. 1599: a year in the life of William Shakespeare. 2006. TB23041.How did Shakespeare go from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year we follow what he reads and writes, what he saw and who he worked with as he invests in the new Globe theatre and creates four of his most famous plays - Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet. Here is an intimate history of Shakespeare, following him through a single year that changed not only his fortunes but the course of literature as we know it.Read by Jonathan Oliver. 14 hours 56 minutes. TB23041.Artists and musiciansAlldritt, Keith. Vaughan Williams. 2015. TB22934.This biography examines the considerable range of Vaughan Williams' work, from the English pastoral tradition to Modernism, and shows how Vaughan Williams was influenced by the Boer War, the economic depression after the First World War, the deprivations of the Blitz, and the austerity of the Cold War. He reveals how the greatest influence on Vaughan Williams’ music and creative development was his personal life, his seemingly secure marriage and an equally enduring love affair.Read by Benedick Blythe. 17 hours 23 minutes. TB22934.Condon, Eddie. We called it music: a generation of jazz. 1992. TB22649.Eddie Condon (1905 - 1973) pioneered a kind of jazz popularly known as Chicago-Dixieland, though musicians refer to it simply as Condon style. Played by small ensembles with driving beat, it was and is an informal, exciting music, slightly disjointed and often mischievous. The same could be said of Condon's autobiography, We Called It Music, a book widely celebrated for capturing the camaraderie of early jazz.Read by Paul Birchard. 10 hours 13 minutes. TB22649.MacCarthy, Fiona. Eric Gill. 2003. TB21864. Eric Gill who died in 1940, was among the greatest English artist-craftsmen of the 20th century: a typographer and lettercutter of genius, and a master in the art of sculpture and wood -engraving. In this biography, the problems and contradictions of Gill the man and Gill the artist are examined. This complex man had spiritual longings, and this had taken him into the Catholic Church in 1913 (without it having any effect on his eroticism). He habitually wore a cassock, which was both convenient for his work and also recalled a monk’s habit. In 1921 he founded a crafts guild called the Guild of SS Joseph and Dominic.Read by Di Langford. 13 hours 45 minutes. TB21864.Richards, Keith. Life. 2010. TB20676.With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records as a child in post-war Kent. Learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The notorious Redlands drug bust. Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Some Girls'. Ever increasing fame, isolation and addiction. Read by Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley, featuring Keith Richards. 23 hours 5minutes. TB20676.Suchet, John. The last waltz: the Strauss dynasty and Vienna. 2015. TB22523.The intriguing story of two generations of the Viennese family that produced some of the best known and best loved music of the 19th century. From nowhere they produced two waltz kings, and literally hundreds of instantly recognisable and enduring melodies. Yet this was also a family riven with tension, feuds and jealousy, and those involved lived in an Austria that witnessed seismic upheavals. Through the personal and political chaos, the Strauss family continued to compose waltzes to which the Viennese - anxious to forget their troubles - danced and drank champagne, as their country hurtled toward WWI, and oblivion.Read by Sean Baker. 8 hours13 minutes. TB22523.Whistler, Laurence. The laughter and the urn: the life of Rex Whistler. 1985. TB6086.The story of a painter whose work was romantic and humorous told by his brother with whom he shared much of his short life. A peace loving man, he joined the Welsh Guards and was killed in the Normandy landings aged thirty-nine. The diversity of his achievement for so short a span was remarkable - murals, book illustrations and theatre designs as well as easel painting and portraiture.Read by Bruce Montague. 15 hours 45 minutes. TB6086.Winehouse, Mitch. Amy, my daughter. 2012. TB22503.Using exclusive extracts from his own personal diaries, Amy’s father and confidant Mitch celebrates what influenced his daughter. Documenting her early years from Sylvia Young to the Brit School, and the darker side of her life as she struggled to cope with her addictions under the glare of the media spotlight, he gives new insights.Read by Rupert Farley, Mitch Winehouse. 9 hours 51 minutes. TB22503.Science and engineeringByrne, Eugene. Brunel. 2014. TB22034. In a BBC poll in 2002, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was voted the second-greatest Briton of all time, only eclipsed by Churchill. It's often claimed that through his ships, bridges, tunnels and railways Brunel played a critical role in creating the modern world. Never tied to a dusty office, he crammed enough work, adventure and danger into a single year to last a lesser person a lifetime. He was also a brilliant showman, a flamboyant personality and charmer who time and again succeeded in convincing investors to finance schemes which seemed impossible. Read by Greg Wagland. 3 hours 3 minutes. TB22034. PoliticalJohnson, Boris. The Churchill factor: how one man made history. 2014. TB23000.Boris Johnson explores what makes up the 'Churchill factor', the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. Taking on the myths and misconceptions along with the outsized reality, he portrays a man of multiple contradictions, contagious bravery, breath-taking eloquence, matchless strategising, and deep humanity.Read by Simon Shephard. 11 hours 12 minutes. TB23000.Moore, Charles. Margaret Thatcher: the authorized biography. Volume two. 2015. TB22673.Margaret Thatcher was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century and one of the most influential figures of the post-war era. Volume two of Moore's acclaimed biography covers the central, triumphal years of her premiership, from the Falklands to the 1987 election. Based on unrestricted access to all Lady Thatcher's papers, unpublished interviews with her and all her major colleagues, this is the indispensable portrait of a towering figure of our times.Read by Keith Hill. 33 hours 12 minutes. TB22673.Also:Moore, Charles. Margaret Thatcher: the authorized biography. Volume one. 2015. TB20573.Read by Keith Hill. 36 hours 34 minutes. TB20573.Seldon, Anthony. Cameron at 10: the inside story 2010-2015. 2015. TB22835.‘Cameron at 10’ is the gripping inside story of the Cameron premiership, based on over 300 in-depth interviews with senior figures in 10 Downing Street, including the Prime Minister himself. This book contains all the highs and lows on the domestic front as well as providing revealing insights into the Prime Minister’s relationships with foreign leaders, particularly the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President. Read by Dugald Bruce Lockhart. 19 hours 34 minutes. TB22835.Skinner, Dennis. Sailing close to the wind: reminiscences. 2015. TB22652.Dennis Skinner, the famed Beast of Bolsover, is adored by legions of supporters and respected as well as feared by admiring enemies. Fiery and forthright, with a prodigious recall, Skinner is one of the best-known politicians in Britain. He remains as passionate and committed to the causes he champions as on the first day he entered the House of Commons back in 1970. These are his memoirs.Read by Philip Bretherton. 9 hours 27 minutes. TB22652.Trumpington, Jean. Coming up trumps: a memoir. 2014. TB23460.Daughter of an officer and an American heiress, Jean Campbell-Harris was born into a world of privilege, but the Wall Street Crash wiped out her mother's fortune. She became a land girl before joining naval intelligence at Bletchley Park. After the war she worked with advertising's 'mad men'. It was here that she met her husband, the historian Alan Barker, and their marriage, in 1954, ushered in the happiest period of her life before embarking on her political career, as a Cambridge City councillor, Mayor of Cambridge and, then, in 1980, a life peer.Read by Sarah Badel. 5 hours 55 minutes. TB23460.RoyaltyAsbridge, Thomas S. The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones. 2015. TB23131.Asbridge draws upon an array of contemporary evidence, to present a compelling account of William Marshal's life and times, from rural England to the battlefields of France, the desert castles of the Holy Land and the verdant shores of Ireland. Charting the unparalleled rise to prominence of a man bound to a code of honour, yet driven by unquenchable ambition, this knight's tale lays bare the brutish realities of medieval warfare and the machinations of royal court, and draws us into the heart of a period of our history, when the West emerged from the Dark Ages and stood on the brink of modernity.Read by Jonathan Oliver. 16 hours 17 minutes. TB23131.Hadlow, Janice. The strangest family: the private lives of George III, Queen Charlotte and the Hanoverians . 2015. TB22800.George III came to the throne in 1760 determined to break with the extraordinarily dysfunctional home lives of his Hanoverian predecessors. He was sure that as a faithful husband and a loving father, he would be not just a happier man but a better ruler as well. His wife, Queen Charlotte, shared his sense of moral purpose, and together they raised their fifteen children in a climate of loving attention. But as the children grew older, and their wishes and desires developed away from those of their father, it became harder to maintain the illusion of domestic harmony.Read by Adjoa Andoh. 27 hours 13 minutes. TB22800.Junor, Penny. Prince Harry: brother, soldier, son. 2014. TB23226.Prince Harry is the redhead that Diana called 'the spare', whose childhood was one of chaos and loss; the little boy walking behind his mother's cortege who broke our hearts. This is the story of how he survived the loss and chaos; how he lived in the shadow of his older, cleverer, more important brother, until suddenly he discovered there was something he could do better than almost anyone. This is the story of how the troubled teenager grew into a leader of men, a soldier, a pilot and a passionate champion of those who are in danger of being destroyed or forgotten.Read by Penny Junor. 13 hours 6 minutes. TB23226.Lacey, Robert. Grace: Her lives - her loves: The startling royal exposé. 1995. TB21917.Movie legend, princess, tragic heroine. The moment Grace Kelly stepped into the spotlight in 1950, the world was entranced. In this definitive biography of Hollywood’s sweetheart, Robert Lacey looks behind the fairytale facade to reveal the real story of Princess Grace of Monaco, as she became. Gaining unprecedented access to her family and friends, he tells the story of a complex and conflicted woman determined to live her dream. The bestselling biographer also reveals new details about Grace’s tragic early death in a car accident that sent shockwaves around the world, and lifts the lid on the affairs that rocked her marriage to Prince Rainier III.Read by Christopher Oxford. 16 hours 26 minutes. TB21917.Pollard, A. J. Henry V. 2014. TB22036. Henry V is the best-known military hero in English history: better known than Marlborough or Wellington. He enjoyed more success against the French than any of them, coming close to conquering that vast country and imposing an English dynasty. He was a military genius, yet his megalomania was not always in the best interests of his own kingdom, let alone the people of France who suffered at his hands. Behind the carefully constructed nationalist myth was a cold, calculating, ruthless ruler who, before his early death, revealed ominous tyrannical tendencies.Read by Greg Wagland. 2 hours 51 minutes. TB22036.Souhami, Diana. Mrs Keppel and her daughter. 2013. TB22057.Alice Keppel, lover of Queen Victoria's son Edward VII and great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles, was the acceptable face of Edwardian adultery. She partnered the King for yachting at Cowes and helped him choose presents for his wife Queen Alexandra while remaining calmly married to her complaisant husband George. But for her daughter Violet, passionately in love with Vita Sackville-West, romance proved tragic and destructive. Mrs Keppel used all the force at her command to repress the relationship in a breathtakingly cruel display of hypocrisy. Read by Helen Bourne. 14 hours 33 minutes. TB22057.Spencer, Charles. Prince Rupert: the last cavalier. 2008. TB22012.To his fellow Royalists, fighting for King Charles I, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was the archetypal 'cavalier' and one of those Royalists who fought on even after Charles was executed in 1649, commanding the Royalist forces in exile before the triumphant restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Prince Rupert is revealed as more than just a great general and dashing cavalier. He was a scientist and classical scholar too: a true renaissance prince.Read by Steve Hodson. 19 hours 24 minutes. TB22012.Watson, Fiona J. Robert the Bruce. 2014. TB22035. Robert Bruce proved to the medieval world that superior military might could be overcome even in battle by a well-disciplined, tactically innovative and brilliantly led force. His approach to warfare gave food for thought to many on the opposing side, and helped to inspire the evolution of English military tactics over the following century, contributing to their extraordinary performance during the Hundred Years war with France. Read by Greg Wagland. 2 hours 50 minutes. TB22035.Yorke, Barbara. Alfred the Great. 2015. TB22033.Why is Alfred the 'Great'? A simple answer is that he has been seen as a man who saved England, invented English identity and pioneered English as a written language. He is the first Englishman for whom a biography survives so that we know more about Alfred and his ideals than we do for most people who lived over a thousand years ago. A slightly longer answer would say that things are a bit more complicated, and that one reason Alfred seems to be 'great' was that he made sure we were told that he was. To get the measure of Alfred we need to look at what he actually managed to achieve.Read by Greg Wagland. 2 hours 38 minutes.ReligionMatusiak, John. Wolsey: the life of King Henry VIII's cardinal. 2014. TB21911.This work explores the many contrasting layers of Thomas Wolsey's life and career, and represents the first genuinely popular biography of the much-maligned cardinal to appear in over 30 years. Making no assumptions, it looks at the real person in the cold light of his actions, and uncovers a man of contradictions and extremes whose meteoric rise was marked by an equally inexorable descent into desperation, as he attempted in vain to satisfy the tempestuous master whose ambition ultimately broke him.Read by Greg Wagland. 17 hours 10 minutes. TB21911.SportBannister, Roger. Twin tracks: the autobiography. 2015. TB22529.Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes, inspiring a generation. In this frank, truthful memoir, one of the iconic figures of sport tells for the first time the full story of the dedication and talent that led to his unprecedented achievement, and of his professional life as a distinguished doctor and neurologist once his (strictly amateur) athletic career drew to a close.Read by Tom Hodgkins. 10 hours 19 minutes. TB22529.Lloyd, David. Last in the tin bath: the autobiography. 2015. TB23031.Cricket commentator David 'Bumble' Lloyd recalls his childhood in Accrington, when, after a long day playing cricket in the street, he would get his chance to wash himself in his family's tin bath but only after his parents and uncle had taken their turn. He made his debut for Lancashire while still in his teens, eventually earning an England call-up. After retiring as a player, he became an umpire and then England coach during the 1990s, before eventually turning to commentary with Sky Sports.Read by Philip Bretherton. 10 hours 17 minutes. TB23031.Tyson, Mike. Undisputed truth: autobiography. 2013. TB22193.Philosopher, Broadway headliner, fighter, felon—Mike Tyson has defied stereotypes, expectations, and a lot of conventional wisdom during his three decades in the public eye. Bullied as a boy in the toughest, poorest neighbourhood in Brooklyn, Tyson grew up to become one of the most ferocious boxers of all time and the youngest heavyweight champion ever. But his brilliance in the ring was often compromised by reckless behaviour. Yet, even after hitting rock bottom, the man who once admitted being addicted “to everything” fought his way back, achieving triumphant success as an actor and newfound happiness and stability as a father and husband. Read by Joshua Henry. 20 hours 10 minutes. TB22193.Yates, Chris. The lost diary: April - September 1981. 2013. TB21870.Chris Yates is one of the most celebrated anglers in the world today. He broke the carp record held by Dick Walker at Redmire in 1980, starred in the BBC series A Passion For Angling and has written ten books, including a series of diaries published between 1977 and 1980. The final volume of the 'River Diaries' never made it into print, however, because Chris lost it somewhere in his house. Happily, 30 years later, Chris discovered an old battered photograph album in the bottom of a box full of Christmas decorations - 'The Lost Diary' had been found.Read by Richard Derrington. 3 hours 34 minutes. TB21870.WarAlbright, Madeleine Korbel. Prague winter: a personal story of remembrance and war, 1937-1948. 2013. TB22507.Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, the Battle of Britain, the near-total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Drawing on her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and newly available documents, Albright recounts a tale that is by turnsharrowing and inspiring. Read by Liza Ross. 16 hours 45 minutes. TB22507.Carton de Wiart, Adrian. Happy odyssey: the memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart V.C., K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. 2007. TB22643.This is one of the most remarkable of military memoirs. Adrian Carton de Wiart was wounded eight times (including the loss of an eye and a hand), won the VC during the Battle of the Somme, was mentioned in despatches six times, and was the model for Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in the Sword of Honour trilogy of Evelyn Waugh.Read by Mark Elstob. 8 hours 33 minutes. TB22643.Greenberg, Joel. Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park's architect of Ultra Intelligence. 2014. TB22738.Gordon Welchman was one of Bletchley Park's most important figures. Like Turing, his pioneering work was fundamental to the success of Bletchley Park and helped pave the way for the birth of the digital age. Yet, his story is largely unknown to many. This book draws on Welchman's personal papers and correspondence with wartime colleagues which lay undisturbed in his son's loft for many years. Packed with fascinating new insights, including Welchman's thoughts on key Bletchley figures and the development of the Bombe machine, this book sheds light on the clandestine activities at Bletchley Park.Read by Bob Rollett. 11 hours 1 minute. TB22738.Gregg, Victor. Rifleman: a front-line life from Alamein and Dresden to the fall of the Berlin Wall. 2011. TB21920.Born into a working-class family in London in 1919, Victor Gregg enlisted in the Rifle Brigade at nineteen and was sent to the Middle East. He joined the Parachute Regiment and in September 1944 found himself at the battle of Arnhem. When the paratroopers were forced to withdraw, Gregg was captured. He attempted to escape, but was caught and became a prisoner of war; sentenced to death in Dresden for attempting to escape and burning down a factory, only the allies' infamous raid on the city the night before his execution saved his life. This is the story of a true survivor.Read by John Clegg. 11 hours 23 minutes. TB21920.Holland, Irene. Tales of a Tiller Girl: my true story of dancing in wartime London. 2014. TB22205.Growing up in London in the 1930s, dancing was so much more to Irene than just a hobby. It was her escape and it took her off into another world away from the harsh realities of life - the horrors of WW2, the grief of losing her father and missing her mother who she didn’t see for three years while she was drafted to help with the war effort. Finally it led to her winning a place as a Tiller Girl; the world’s most famous dance troupe, the epitome of glitz and glamour. Read by Kate Lee. 7 hours 49 minutes. TB22205.Kyle, Chris. American Sniper [Movie Tie-in Edition] the autobiography of the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. 2015. TB22508.From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him "The Legend"; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan ("the devil") and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war, including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates and his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war. Read by Jason Wilson. 11 hours 54 minutes. TB22508.Weintraub, Robert. No better friend: one man, one dog, and their incredible story of courage and survival in WWII. 2015. TB22188.Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the prisoners. At one point, deep in despair and starvation, Frank contemplated killing himself and the dog to prevent either from watching the other die. But both were rescued, and Judy spent the rest of her life with Frank. This is their story of friendship and survival.Read by Andrew Cullum. 16 hours 33 minutes. TB22188.Courage and inspirationBlind Dave. From light to dark: the story of 'Blind' Dave Heeley. 2016. TB23154.Born sighted, 'Blind' Dave Heeley showed athletic promise from an early age, smashing his town's 1500-metre track record aged just 11. However, a devastating diagnosis shattered his sporting dreams and he hastily gave up on sporting activity. This work charts his story and how he rediscovered his boyhood talent for running and went on to undertake some of the world's toughest challenges. With a foreword by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.Read by James Parsons. 9 hours 37 minutes. TB23154.Gardner, Nuala. All because of Henry: my story of struggle and triumph with two autistic children and the dogs that unlocked their world. 2013. TB22528.'All Because of Henry' picks up the lead from 'A Friend Like Henry', which traced the childhood journey of Dale, the Gardner family and, of course, their amazing golden retriever Henry, who has finally helped Dale to communicate with the world. Now, we meet Dale again, aged 17. He is no longer the victim of severe classical autism, but a young man facing a challenging and uncertain future. Autism changes, but it never goes away. Dale is ready for the world, but is the world ready for him and for his peers?Read by Maggie MacRitchie. 10 hours 24 minutes. TB22528.Glass, Cathy. Will you love me? the story of my adopted daughter Lucy. 2013. TB22795.This book tells the true story of Cathy's adopted daughter Lucy. Lucy was born to a single mother who had been abused and neglected for most of her own childhood. Right from the beginning Lucy's mother couldn't cope, but it wasn't until Lucy reached eight years old that she was finally taken into permanent foster care.Read by Denica Fairman. 9 hours 7 minutes. TB22795.Gross, Kate. Late fragments: everything I want to tell you (about this magnificent life). 2015. TB22797.Aged 34, Kate was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. After a two -year battle with the disease, Kate died peacefully at home on Christmas morning, just ten minutes before her sons awoke to open their stockings. She began to write as a gift to herself, a reminder that she could create even as her body began to self-destruct. Her book aspires to give hope and purpose to the lives of her readers.Read by Helen Duff. 4 hours 48 minutes. TB22797.Keller, Helen. The story of my life. 2005. TB22889.This book, published when Keller was only twenty-two, portrays the wild child who is locked in the dark and silent prison of her own body. Keller reveals her frustrations and rage, and takes the reader on the journey of her education and breakthroughs into the world of communication. From the moment Keller recognizes the word “water” when her teacher finger-spells the letters, we share her triumph as “that living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!”Read by Kelly Burke. 7 hours 41minutes. TB22889.Knill, Iby. The woman without a number. 2010. TB21397.'The Woman Without a Number' is the story of holocaust survivor Iby Knill, whose early childhood was spent in Czechoslovakia before her parents smuggled her over the border to Hungary. While there, she was caught by the Security Police, imprisoned and tortured, not just for having Jewish connections, but for being in Hungary illegally and for aiding the resistance movement. Eventually, she was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. In June 1944, Iby left by volunteering for labour at a hospital unit.Read by Hilary Michel. 10 hours 29 minutes. TB21397.Loridan, Marceline. But you did not come back. 2016. TB23182.Marceline Loridan-Ivens was just 15 when she and her father were arrested and sent to concentration camps. He prepared her for the worst, telling her that he would not return. The three kilometres between her father in Auschwitz and herself in Birkenau were an insurmountable distance, and yet he managed to send her a small note via an electrician in the camp. Here, Marceline writes a letter to the father she would never know as an adult, and the man whose death enveloped her whole life.Read by Beverley Klein. 2 hours 16 minutes. TB23182.Lynch, Lisa. The C-word: just your average 28-year-old ... friends, family, Facebook, cancer. 2015. TB22049.The last thing Lisa Lynch had expected to put on her 'things to do before you're 30' list was beating breast cancer, but it became the priority. So with her life on hold, and her mind stuffed with unspoken fears, questions and emotions, she turned to her computer and started blogging about the frustrating, life-altering, sheer pain -in-the-arse inconvenience of getting breast cancer at the age of 28. The C-Word is an unflinchingly honest and darkly humorous account of Lisa's battle with The Bullshit, as she came to call it.Read by Olivia Mace and Laurence Mitchell. 10 hours 18 minutes.Merry, Trisha. Four waifs on our doorstep. 2015. TB22895.At eleven o' clock one night in 1997, four hungry, damaged young children arrive on foster carers Trisha and Mike Merry's doorstep. From the start, these four children challenge Trisha and Mike to extremes; yet through their formidable efforts, their unshakeable belief in the children, and their (almost) unfailing sense of humour, they are able to turn around four young lives from tragedy to hope.Read by Lynsey Beauchamp. 9 hours 56 minutes. TB22895.Rhodes, James. Instrumental. 2015. TB22512.James recalls the physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a child, his ensuing struggle with drugs and alcohol and the nervous breakdown that led him to spending months in a locked ward. But there is a bright, broad beam of light piercing through the darkness: James' passion for classical music, a tribute to the therapeutic powers of music, Instrumental also weaves in fascinating facts about how classical music actually works and about the extraordinary lives of some of the great composers. Contains swear words. Contains violence. Contains sex scenesRead by Geoffrey Newland. 7 hours 52 minutes. TB22512.Wright, Martine. Unbroken: my story of survival from 7.7 bombings to Paralympics success. 2017. TB24160.In 2005, Martine was a marketing manager. In 2015 she was voted one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in British Sport' by the Independent. In between those dates, her life changed forever when she lost both of her legs in the London tube bombings of 7.7. She lost 80% of her blood, was in a coma for ten days and underwent ten months of surgery. 'Unbroken' is her inspiring account of how she turned trauma and tragedy into hope.Read by Zara Ramm. 6 hours 58 minutes. TB24160.MiscellaneousBelfort, Jordan. The wolf of Wall Street. 2013. TB23229.By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sunk a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him for at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.Read by Eric Meyers. 20 hours 23 minutes. TB23229.Brown, Jane. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown: the omnipotent magician, 1716-1783. 2012. TB23016.Lancelot Brown changed the face of eighteenth-century England, designing country estates and mansions, moving hills and making flowing lakes and serpentine rivers, a magical world of green. Jane Brown paints an unforgettable picture of the man and his work, from his childhood and apprenticeship in rural Northumberland, through his formative years at Stowe, the most famous garden of the day. His innovative ideas, and his generous nature, led to a meteoric rise to a Royal Appointment in 1764 and his clients and friends ranged from statesmen like the elder Pitt to artists and actors like David Garrick.Read by Lisa Milne Henderson. 16 hours 50 minutes. TB23016.Byrne, Paula. Belle: the true story of Dido Belle. 2014. TB22717.Dido Belle appears, in her famous portrait alongside her 'sister' and companion Lady Elizabeth Murray, a vision of aristocratic virtue. But she was no normal 18th-century lady, and this was no common painting. For Dido Belle was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave woman. Adopted and raised by Lord Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the day, her mixed race and illegitimacy became the controversy of English high society.Read by Maggie Mash. 6 hours 22 minutes. TB22717.Byrom, Sheena. Catching babies. 2011. TB23142.From her very first day as a student nurse in Blackburn to her training as a midwife in Burnley, Sheena Byrom has never once looked back, enjoying a thirty-five-year career with the NHS. Catching Babies reveals the unique experiences that filled Sheena's days as she looked after overwhelmed mums and dads and helped to bring their precious babies into the world. Whatever has come Sheena's way, there are the strong mothers who taught her so much and the little miracles who have made every single moment as a midwife truly magical.Read by Maggie Mash. 9 hours 43 minutes. TB23142.Cooper, Suzanne Fagence. Effie Gray: the passionate lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais. 2014. TB23146.The Scottish beauty Effie Gray is the heroine of a great Victorian love story. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, she found herself trapped in an unconsummated union. She would fall in love with her husband's protégé, John Everett Millais, and inspire some of his most memorable art, but controversy and tragedy continued to stalk her. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's family letters and diaries to show the rise and fall of the Pre-Raphaelite circle from a new perspective.Read by Stephanie Beattie. 11 hours 17 minutes. TB23146.Etherington-Smith, Meredith. The 'It' girls: Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, the couturiere 'Lucile' and Elinor Glyn, romantic novelist. 1986. TB6810.Celebrated sisters Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon and Elinor Glyn, both wilful, glamorous and wordly, are the subjects of this double biography. Born in the 1860s they were forced by circumstance to support themselves at a time when the sole occupation for a gentlewoman was to be a governess. Lucile became one of the foremost couturieres of her age. Elinor's career as a novelist was equally dazzling; her society shocker, "Three Weeks", detailing an extra-marital affair between an exotic seductress and an unwitting younger man, established her notoriety.Read by Joanna Mackie. 10 hours 45 minutes. TB6810.Gray, Emma. One girl and her dogs: life, love and lambing in the middle of nowhere . 2012. TB22654.What happens when you swap 'I do' for pastures new? When 23-year-oldshepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. Throughout the long nights of lambing, the highs and lows of the local sheepdog trials and the day-to-day chores of maintaining a large,ramshackle farm, Emma's collies are her most loyal companions. With Bill,Fly, Roy and Alfie by her side, she'll never really be alone.Read by Caroline Guthrie. 7 hours 20 minutes. TB22654.Hart, Joan. At the coalface: the heart warming true story of a Yorkshire pit nurse. 2015. TB22801.Joan Hart always knew what she wanted to do with her life. Born in South Yorkshire in 1932, she started her nursing training when she was 16. When she took a job as a pit nurse in Doncaster in 1974, she found that in order to be accepted by the men under her care, she would have to become one of them. She tended to injured miners underground, rescued men trapped in the pits, and provided support for them and their families during the bitter miners’ strike which stretched from March 1984 to 1985.Read by Maggie Ollerenshaw. 9 hours 38 minutes. TB22801.Hastings, Selina. The red earl: the extraordinary life of the 16th Earl of Huntingdon. 2014. TB22884.In The Red Earl Selina Hastings tells the extraordinary story of her father, Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon. In 1925, Hastings infuriated his ultra-conservative parents by turning his back on centuries of tradition to make a scandalous run-away marriage. With his beautiful Italian wife he then left England for the other side of the world, further enraging his family by determining on a career as a painter.Read by Carolanne Lyme. 7 hours 54 minutes. TB22884.Hollander, Xaviera. The happy hooker. 2002. TB23085.In the late 1960s when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention- a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job and soon became the most glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this young woman an international phenomenon.Contains sex scenes. Contains swear words.Read by Anna Morgan. 9 hours 53 minutes. TB23085.Kingett, Robert. Off the grid: living blind without the Internet. 2015. TB23155.Journalist Robert Kingett accepts a dare, one that at first seems simple: to adapt to his blindness without the Internet. This account is a cosy diary of battling with an FM radio, hooking up a landline phone, and the journey of adapting to a brand new way of living from someone who has never disconnected from the World Wide Web.Read by T. David Rutherford. 3 hours 27 minutes. TB23155.Lovell, Mary S. A scandalous life: the biography of Jane Digby. 1996. TB22516.A celebrated aristocratic beauty, Jane Digby married Lord Ellenborough at seventeen. Their divorce a few years later was one of England’s most scandalous at that time. In her quest for passionate fulfilment she had lovers which included an Austrian prince, King Ludvig I of Bavaria, and a Greek count whose infidelities drove her to the Orient. In Syria, she found the love of her life, a Bedouin nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab who was twenty years her junior. Mary Lovell has produced from Jane Digby’s diaries both a portrait of a rare woman and a glimpse into the centuries -old Bedouin tradition that is now almost lost.Read by Lisa Milne Henderson. 17 hours 27 minutes. TB22516.Macdonald, Helen. H is for hawk. 2015. TB22558.As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T.H. White's tortured masterpiece, 'The Goshawk', which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. This is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming.Read by Helen Macdonald. 11 hours 9 minutes. TB22558.Richardson, Evelyn M. We keep a light. 2001. Canadian Library Nonfiction. TB21983.Evelyn M. Richardson describes how she and her husband brought tiny Bon Portage Island and built a happy life there for themselves and their three children. On an isolated lighthouse station off the southern tip of Nova Scotia, the Richardsons shared the responsibilities and pleasures of island living, from carrying water and collecting firewood to making preserves and studying at home. The close-knit family didn’t mind their isolation, and found delight in the variety and beauty of island life.Read by Barbara Byam. 9 hours 17 minutes. TB21983.Sackville-West, Robert. The disinherited: a story of family, love and betrayal. 2015. TB22743.In the small hours of the morning of 3 June 1914, a woman and her husband were found dead in a sparsely furnished apartment in Paris. The man, Henry Sackville-West, had shot himself minutes after the death of his wife from cancer; but Henry's suicidal despair had been driven equally by the failure of his claim to be the legitimate son of Lord Sackville and heir to Knole. 'The Disinherited' reveals the secrets and lies at the heart of an English dynasty.Read by David Fellowes. 9 hours 32 minutes. TB22743.Smith, Verity. The groper's guide. 2014. TB22556."The Groper's Guide" gives an eye opening insight into the hidden world of the unseen, in which the wonders of Verity's world are bumped into, tripped over, scratched, sniffed and fallen in love with. The book gives a humorous account of the travels and tribulations that she experiences while growing up as a blind explorer, whose perspective of the world adds a new dimension to an already colourful planet. We follow her journey through a wonderland and watch as, just as they did for Alice, things for Verity become 'curiouser and curiouser'.Read by Lucy Scott. 7 hours 58 minutes. TB22556.Sullivan, Rosemary. Stalin's daughter: the extraordinary and tumultuous life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. 2015. TB22848.Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but she did not escape tragedy. As she learned about the extent of her father’s brutality, Svetlana could no longer keep quiet and in 1967 shocked the world by defecting to the United States, leaving her two children behind.Read by Karen Cass. 19 hours 46 minutes. TB22848.Tate, Barbara. West End girls: the real lives, loves and friendship of 1940s Soho and its working girls. 2011. TB22768.Barbara Tate was 17 when she heard the whispered word that would change her life: Soho. It would take four years for Barbara to escape her loveless home but when she finally made it to the forbidden streets of Soho, just as London was recovering from the trauma of the second world war, things would never be the same again. There the naive Barbara meets the beautiful and capricious Mae. When she takes a job as Mae's maid, Barbara imagines she'll be housekeeping. But down a shabby backstreet, Barbara discovers the secret lives of Soho's working girls.Read by Julie Stark. 10 hours 24 minutes. TB22768.Wilson, Andrew. Alexander McQueen: blood beneath the skin. 2015. TB22250.When Alexander McQueen committed suicide in February 2010, aged just 40, a shocked world mourned the loss of its most visionary fashion designer. McQueen had risen from humble beginnings as the youngest child of an East London taxi driver to scale the heights of fame, fortune and glamour. But behind the confident facade and bad-boy image, lay a sensitive soul who struggled to survive in the ruthless world of fashion. As the pressures of work intensified, so McQueen became increasingly dependent on the drugs that contributed to his tragic end. Read by Simon Bubb. 12 hours24 minutes. TB22250. ................
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