"A number one bestseller in Britain, Stephen Fry's astonishingly frank, funny, wise memoir is the book that his fans everywhere have been waiting for. Since his PBS television debut in the Blackadder series, the American profile of this multitalented writer, actor and comedian has grown steadily, especially in the wake of his title role in the film Wilde, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and his supporting role in A Civil Action. Fry has already given readers a taste of his tumultuous adolescence in his autobiographical first novel, The Liar, and now he reveals the equally tumultuous life that inspired it. Sent to boarding school at the age of seven, he survived beatings, misery, love affairs, carnal violation, expulsion, attempted suicide, criminal conviction and imprisonment to emerge, at the age of eighteen, ready to start over in a world in which he had always felt a stranger. One of very few Cambridge University graduates to have been imprisoned prior to his freshman year, Fry is a brilliantly idiosyncratic character who continues to attract controversy, empathy and real devotion"--

On the surface, David Baddiel's childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But David came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family's past, his father's memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother's affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.

This book defies categorization. It is an auto-biographical novel, a book about how to have fun, a cautionary tale for the sexually and socially inhibited. It is a political treatise on how to combat puritanism, a philosophical tract on the importance of humour to the human soul, a buyers' guide to outstanding porno tapes and a business book for the entertainment industry. It is the life of Mark Breslin. Beginning as the enfant terrible of Canadian comedy, Mark Breslin rose up and built an empire: the Yuk Yuk's chain of comedy clubs. He pulled Jim Carrey out of open-mic obscurity, gave dozens of other comics their big breaks and made an astounding contribution to the widely held belief that Canadians are the funniest people in the world. Along the way he learned how far some people will go for money, or for a dream; how truly puritanical North American society remains in this supposedly progressive age; how as you move closer to the top, the only thing you really get is a better view of the men pulling the strings. Written in the sort of irreverent, confessional prose style that will keep the Yuk Yuk's lawyers awake at night, Control Freaked takes us on a hilarious and shocking journey into the dark corners of the entertainment industry.

‘Why did we get into showbiz? One reason may have been the thought of working with beautiful show girls and meeting glamorous actresses'Mike Winters has been fortunate enough to have lived and worked part of his life in the same circles as a lot of famous people. But this was a far cry from when he was growing up in Tottenham, when his dream was to play rugby for England. Instead, Mike, with his brother Bernie, topped the bill at the London Palladium, and most of the major theatres in the UK. They had their own highly-successful TV series, running for 15 years, and were honoured with a Command Performance in front of the Queen and Prince Phillip. Little did Mike know that he'd later get to know her son. And Mike's view of this? ‘Stuff just happens.' In this fascinating, unpretentious account, Mike shares his precious memories and stories. They cover many years and involve an eclectic mix of stars and characters: Sean Connery, Cary Grant, Helen Mirren, Dusty Springfield, Jack Benny, mobster Meyer Lansky, Jimmy Tarbuck and The Beatles (who appeared on their show three times!), as well as sports personalities such as Don Revie, Matt Busby and Malcolm Allison, to name but a few. These were different days, when entertainers at all levels mixed together. Mike sung, danced, duetted, joked around with, did impressions of, or simply shot the breeze with, many talented men and woman in Variety and Television. Funny, charming and revealing, The Sunny Side of Winters is a heartfelt celebration of life, celebrity and brotherhood.Mike Winters has written four book, two novels, the authobiography of Angelo Dundee (with Angelo Dundee), and Axis of Greatness about Dundee, Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard (published by JR Books). He lives in Florida.