Having lived many lives when most of us only live one, the stories of Joan Collins' adventures on film sets around the world, the friendships she made, the triumphs and the near disasters could fill many books. Encounters with Princess Diana, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the romantic story of her courtship and marriage to Percy Gibson are among the new stories Joan shares, in this latest instalment of her witty, wise and revelatory memoirs. Following on from where Second Act left off, the screen icon reveals details of her life with her fifth (and final) husband Percy, her travels around the world, fun with family and friends, and shares more revealing anecdotes about the fascinating people she has met during her life. A Passion for Life is - quite literally - an expression of the joie de vivre which Joan exudes. Filled with fabulous never-before-seen images of her life, from childhood to recent holiday snaps with Percy and her children, this is the ultimate illustrated guide to the life of a British icon.

The inside story of the continuing global banking crisis. Written by an award-winning financial journalist, Bad Banks is an unflinching and gripping account of the problems and scandals that continue to bedevil the world's banking system some five years after the credit crunch. It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of individual banks, from RBS to Lloyds. It exposes instances of misselling, money laundering, interest rate fixing and incompetence. And it considers the bigger picture: how the failings of the world's banking system are threatening to undermine our future economic security. Alex Brummer, the City Editor of the Daily Mail, has spoken to all the major players, from HBOS's Andy Hornby, to former Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King, to the ex-Greek permier Lucas Papademos. His book is an insightful -- and terrifying -- account of institutions once renowned for their probity, now all too often a byword for incompetence, and worse.

George Mikes has written many successful books on a variety of interesting subjects, but one so successful as those on the subject most central to his own experience: his adopted country. The first of these came out in 1946: the ever famous "How to be an Alien." Later he enlarges the picture with "How to be inimitable" and "How to be Decadent." All three books were illustrated by the master of the cartoonists’ art, the late Nicolas Bentley. Here they are, all in one volume, which will make life much easier for today's would-be Brits than it was for those who pervaded them. It is said that a few of the latter actually failed to become indistinguishable from the genuine British article because they found it too tiresome to seek out three separate books: a misfortune that need never again occur to anyone.

One of England’s foremost filmmakers, Derek Jarman (1942–1994) wrote and directed several feature films, including Sebastiane, Jubilee, Caravaggio, and Blue, as well as numerous short films and music videos. He was a stage designer, artist, writer, gardener, and an outspoken AIDS and queer rights activist in the UK and the United States. He is the author of several books, among them Modern Nature, available from the University of Minnesota Press.

Night and the City (1938) made Gerald Kersh's reputation, but it was as a war novelist that he reached a wide readership in 1942, via a pair of books about British army recruits, led by Sergeant Bill Nelson, preparing to see service in France. This Faber Finds edition collects both books. '[ They Die With Their Boots Clean ] is a picture of life in the raw in the Coldstream Guards, with all its rigorous discipline, its humour and comradeship.' TLS [In The Nine Lives Of Bill Nelson ] the conversations are terse, ferociously slangy, full of hyperbole and outrageous wit, often irresistibly funny.' TLS [Kersh] has sure magic in taking us through the training of raw recruits... Each man's story is briefly and dramatically told, the episodes are vigorous, and Nelson holds the centre of the stage, as he leads the battered troops over 63 miles of French territory to Dunkirk...' Kirkus Reviews