My life in a column

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Abi Smith

Micky Flanagan is one of Britain's best-loved cheeky-chappy comedians, thanks to his stand-up routines about how he's gone from growing up in London's East End in the 1970s to his life now in middle-class suburbia. Yet a career as a professional comedian was not something that he had ever dreamed of when, as a troublesome teen, he left school aged 15 to work in a fish market. Abi Smith looks at how Micky, who was laughed at by his teachers when he said he wanted to be a vet, has triumphed from his early days working as a fish porter in the East End and as a dishwasher in New York. In this page-turning biography you'll also discover why his mum labelled him a drama queen, and how he tried his hand at various professions - including trainee teacher and painter and decorator - before having the last laugh by becoming one of the country's most popular funny men.

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Sheila Tofield

Aged 17, Sheila was left heartbroken when her fiance broke off their engagement. A year later, having fallen pregnant to an older man, she found herself in a Church of England home for unmarried mothers, expected to give up her child for adoption. But despite being ostracised by her family, neighbours and colleagues, Sheila chose to do the unthinkable - to bring up her baby on her own.

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Michael J. Ortiz

The witty and engaging diary of Susanna Shakespeare, the young daughter of William Shakespeare, from a first–time author. Thirteen–year–old Susanna Shakespeare longs for something exciting to happen in her boring village of Stratford, England. Her father, Will, is always off in London, busily working on new plays, and Susanna yearns to be a part of that world. When Susanna's uncle gets himself in trouble with the Master of Revels, and Susanna is whisked off to London to help, the stage is set for adventure...and romance. Told in a diary format with Susanna's humorous, witty perspective of late–sixteenth–century Elizabethan England, this extensively researched debut novel offers an unconventional glimpse into the life of the famed Bard's family.

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edited and with a preface by William Shawcross

William Shawcross's official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, published in September 2009, was a huge critical and commercial success. One of the great revelations of the book was Queen Elizabeth's insightful, witty private correspondence. Indeed, The Sunday Times described her letters as "wonderful ... brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness." Now, Shawcross has put together a selection of her letters, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle. Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood before the First World War to the very end of her long life at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the real person behind the public face.--From publisher description.