Showing results by publisher "Hodder Headline Limited" in All Categories

Have you heard the story about the day Dickie Bird was invited to lunch with the Queen? Or the one about Brian Johnston when he joined the Grenadier Guards?

Linda Smith (1958-2006) was a national treasure and voted "wittiest person alive" on Radio 4. From her childhood in Erith, featuring her "sweet smiling fascist grandmother", and holidays abroad (to the Isle of Wight), to her early stand-up days and comedy career, Warren Lakin recalls Linda's story and their life together.

Michael Pennington reads the much-loved classic by Thomas Hardy. Hardy called this story "a deadly war waged between flesh and spirit". It is a tale of doomed love and unfulfilled promise that revolves around Jude Fawley, an ambitious and intelligent young man, his cousin Sue Bridehead, and his academic mentor Phillotson.

It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, back when his work on extinct species was about to make him world famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of "the Mysterious Bird of Ulieta", a creature once owned by the great 18th-century naturalist Joseph Banks.

From the huge response to Lost for Words, it's clear that many of us share John's strong feelings about the use and misuse of the English language. Not because we want to split hairs (or infinitives), but because how we use words reveals so much about the way we see the world. Here John takes a sharp look at phrases and expressions in current use to expose the often hidden attitudes that lie behind them - from the schoolroom to the boardroom, from Westminster to the weather forecast.

Through the immortal characters of Oliver, Nancy, Bill Sikes, Fagin, the Artful Dodger and Mr. Bumble, Dickens mercilessly sends up the hypocrisy of 19th century life: the high-minded reformism of the intellectuals and the snobbery of those in power.

A trio of desperate convicts has hijacked a bus carrying a group of deaf and mute schoolgirls who are now being held hostage in a disused slaughterhouse. FBI agent Arthur Potter is flown in to negotiate with the men, as are local police, state troopers, politicians, and the media. Not everyone has the same agenda. And the killers will kill one innocent child an hour, on the hour, until their demands are met.

In A Christmas Carol, we meet some of Dickens' most famous creations in the characters of Scrooge, the three ghosts of Christmas, and of course, Tiny Tim. The story of how the extraordinary events of Christmas Eve change the miserly Scrooge forever have made A Christmas Carol one of the greatest of all Christmas stories.

Emily Brontë tells of the passion between Cathy Earnshaw and the wild Heathcliff with such vivid intensity that her tragic tale of love now has the classic status of ancient tragedy.

One of the best-loved men in Britain, Alan Titchmarsh brilliantly recalls his childhood in 1950s Yorkshire. Alan Titchmarsh grew up and developed his passion for nature in the wild and beautiful landscape of Yorkshire. A real treat for his millions of fans, the ever-popular presenter vividly depicts a childhood of simple pleasures like climbing trees and fishing in streams in a time of post-war austerity.

Have you heard the story about Alan Titchmarsh in the flower bed with Charlie Dimmock? Or Hinge & Bracket at the Edinburgh Festival? Or Richard Digance on his first date?

Do you dread making a phone call in French? Is your first question always: "Do you speak English?" Do you wish you knew what the person at the other end was saying?

If you wonder whether you've booked a hotel for June or July, whether your train leaves at 5 am or 5 pm, or whether you got that phone number right, then Teach Yourself Phone French is for you.

Charles Dickens' classic novel of mystery, read by Alex Jennings. A body is found in the River Thames and is identified as John Harmon. He was due to inherit a great fortune on the condition that he marry a young woman called Bella Wilfer. And so the story begins and unravels and we are introduced to the mysterious John Rokesmith, Our Mutual Friend.

Do you dread making a phone call in German? Is your first question always: "Do you speak English?" Do you wish you knew what the person at the other end was saying?

If you wonder whether you've booked a hotel for June or July, whether your train leaves at 5 am or 5 pm, or whether you got that phone number right, then Teach Yourself Phone German is for you.

For three generations the family-run auction houses of the Dashwoods and the Kings have been fierce rivals. The grandparents Henry Dashwood and Edward King were once best friends, despite their different backgrounds. Best friends until they fell for the same girl Eleanor Faraday eventually picked Henry but the seeds had been sown for a bitter feud that flourished between the two clans for over six decades.

Climb aboard Stationary Bike, a streamlined fever dream of a tale, in which an ordinary household object assumes otherworldly powers and a familiar journey takes a terrifying twist. When commercial artist Richard Sifkitz finally gets around to having that physical he'd been putting off for years, and his cholesterol comes back dangerously high, he does what so many 30-something, junk food-eating couch potatoes have done before him: he buys a stationary bike, and vows to ride it regularly.