David Franks

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Justin Lewis

Great Britain's national treasure, Gary Barlow has achieved unrivalled success with boyband Take That, as a solo artist and songwriter, and as a judge on The X Factor. However, the path to fame is rarely easy and Gary's journey has been full of inspiring highs and distinct lows. From happy beginnings growing up in Frodshaw, Cheshire, as the second son to Marge and Colin Barlow, Gary spent his youth immersing himself in music, writing songs and learning how to play the piano. By the age of 15, Gary was struggling to break into the music industry and doing a string of gigs around the UK, before landing what was to be the job that propelled him into the limelight. After hiring Barry Wooley as his manager, Gary was soon in talks with casting agent Nigel Martin-Smith. Realising Gary's potential, and admiring an early demo of ' A Million Love Songs', Nigel signed him up as the front man for new boy bad Take That, and the rest, as they say, is history. Between 1990 and 1996, Take That sold millions of records, packed out area tours and created an army of fans, who were subsequently devastated when Take That announced their split in 1996. Gary made an attempt at a solo career, but it wasn't to be, and he slipped out of the public consciousness before finding the confidence to begin songwriting and collaborating with other artists to make his records. In 2005, Gary's life was to take another unexpected turn when Take That announced they were getting back together. With a new lease of life, they went onto have continued, record- breaking, success. Gary was soon offered a slot as head judge on ITV's hit TV show The X Factor, and in 2012 he was awarded an OBE - providing that there was more to him than Take That.

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Thomas M. Kitts

A biography of Ray Davies that focuses on his music and his times. This book studies Davies' work from the Kinks' first singles through his 2006 solo album, from his rock musicals in the early 1970s to his one-man stage show in the 1990s, and from his films to his autobiography.

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Brenda Ashford

Brenda Ashford is the quintessential British nanny. Prim and proper, gentle and kind, she seems to have stepped straight out of Mary Poppins. For more than six decades, Nanny Brenda swaddled, diapered, dressed, played with, sang to, cooked for, and looked after more than one hundred children. From the pampered sons and daughters of lords ensconced in their grand estates, to tough East End evacuees during the war, Brenda taught countless little ones to be happy, healthy, and thoroughly well-bred. Knowing a career caring for children was her only calling in life, Brenda attended London's prestigious Norland Institute, famous for producing top-class nannies. It was a sign of privilege and taste for the children of the well-to-do to be seen being pushed in their Silver Cross prams by a Norland nanny -- recognizable by their crisp, starched black uniforms with white bib collars, and their flowing black capes lined with red silk. Sprinkled throughout with pearls of wisdom (children can never have too much love, and learn how to sew a button, for goodness' sake) this delightful memoir from Britain's oldest living nanny is practically perfect in every way.

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selected and edited by Michael and Eleanor Brock

Diary of the wife of Herbert Henry Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister who lead Great Britain during the first two years of World War I. Covers the early war years and Lloyd George's defeat of Asquith's government in December 1916.