Journalist, broadcaster and author IAN SKIDMORE collects rare books and fine wines by choice and unlikely anecdotes and engaging eccentrics almost by accident. His first, hilarious, account of such encounters was celebrated a quarter of a century ago in the first edition of this book. The Liverpool Daily Post said its publication identified him as 'the successor to Tom Sharpe' and actor Ian Carmichael described it as 'a comic masterpiece'. Wales on Sunday said it would be a 'hard act to follow'. It was chosen as BBC Book of the Year, had the highest listening figures on Radio Four, and was read twice on the BBC Overseas Service. The Daily Post described Ian Skidmore as Wales' funniest columnist, the Western Mail as 'a great eccentric'. Now, revisited, revised, and expanded to more than twice its original length it is being published in this special edition.

Forgive Us Our Press Passes

Biographies & Memoirs

Skidmore, Ian

Professionals & Academics

Revel Barker

Throughout his working life Vincent Mulchrone was recognised as the finest reporter on British newspapers. This edition of his collected stories - ranging from coverage of the royal family at home and abroad, the deaths of Nehru and Churchill, the trial of Adolf Eichman and the fall of Saigon, and his passion for food and drink, to tales from Ireland and his native Yorkshire - is published in support of Leukaemia Research.

The Best of Vincent Mulchrone

Mulchrone, Vincent

Cassandra - At His Finest and Funniest

Literature & Fiction

Connor, William Neil

British & Irish

Keith Waterhouse, who wrote an ill-fated screenplay based on this book, said that Slip-Up was `Perhaps the best analysis of Fleet Street at work ever written¿. It is the story of the discovery in Rio de Janeiro of Ronald Biggs, a celebrity fugitive on the run for 12 years after the Great Train Robbery of 1963 and the fiasco that resulted when newsmen and detectives worked out a bizarre plot to bring him back to Britain. Initially a cosy, if highly irregular, conspiracy between Scotland Yard and the Daily Express, the hunt for Biggs soon embroiled every circulation-hungry rival newspaper. And where Fleet Street led, the world¿s news media followed. It was The Story of the Century. Scotland Yard was outwitted from bungled beginning to embarrassed end. The Express was mercilessly mauled by its opponents. The ends of justice were soon forgotten. Biggs had (unwittingly though literally) planted the seeds of his own salvation and, infamously, he kept out of jail for another 27 years. Behind the blazing headlines an even more entertaining farce had been played out but the enthralled public and exasperated British government knew nothing of it until Anthony Delano, a veteran Fleet Street man himself, produced this riveting account of greed, ambition and double-dealing among a tribe of high-powered hacks on the warpath.

Slip-Up: How Fleet Street Caught Ronnie Biggs and Scotland Yard Lost Him: The Story Behind the Scoop

Delano, Anthony

True Crime

Crying All the Way to the Bank

Barker, Revel

Legal History

'The ultimate tabloid story'... 'A fantastic read...' Comments like these on the website TrashFiction helped turn the original edition of this book into a cult sensation. Copies were selling on amazon.com for US$325. '...You don't often see it around, but take my advice: if you do come across it, leap on it and lap it up.' Joyce McKinney was a former beauty queen from North Carolina, originally obsessed by the Osmond family, who became so infatuated by a young Mormon missionary that she followed him to Britain, kidnapped him and - allegedly (for the trial never came to court) - raped him. This NEW version includes everything that was in the earlier one and even more - what happened to Joyce after she fled the country to avoid being tried at the Old Bailey for raping a man. 'The tabloids really went wild... The Daily Mirror had a fabulous exposé ready for publication, as this book relates. It's really top quality tabloid sensationalism'. Written by Anthony Delano, Chief US Correspondent of the Daily Mirror, one of the team that tracked down the truth about the amazing Joyce McKinney.

Joyce McKinney And The Case Of The Manacled Mormon

Religion & Spirituality

The classic book on journalism and the tabloid revolution of newspapers by the master of the craft in the 20th century. A must read for every student of journalism in the English language.

Publish and Be Damned!

Arts & Photography

Cudlipp, Hugh

History & Criticism

A book for all tastes - literally. No matter where you stand on the big Marmite 'love-hate' debate, you will find something in it to your liking. As the title indicates, it contains a mish-mash of information - from serious to silly with lots in between - about the iconic British spread. From its beginnings as brewing industry yeast-waste to its use in the finest restaurants, this book reveals the grip Marmite has on palates - and minds - around the world. The tales it tells amount to a social history, covering more than 100 years. It is crammed with insights into how it all began, the old-time recipes, its place in medicine, its role in education and wars, its many unlikely uses (apart from eating it), and much more. All of which add up to an amazing feat for a humble kitchen cupboard product. But above all it's a fun read about the zany world occupied by Marmite. The lovers of the spread will love the book. But they will also hate it - because of all the ammunition the 'loathers' will find within its pages to hurl at them. Even those who have no interest in Marmite and know nothing about it will find something to grab them - and be converted... either one way or the other.

The Mish-MASH Dictionary of Marmite

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Hall, Maggie

Cooking by Ingredient

From a modest start on a country weekly in the Yorkshire Dales Colin Dunne staggered, via Leeds and Halifax, London, Leamington Spa, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester to Fleet Street in its heyday. For the best part of half a century he delighted readers of local, regional and national newspapers and magazines with his canny ability to spot - and more importantly to report - the strange, the odd, the unlikely and the just plain daft elements of human life. Whether interviewing film star Brigitte Bardot, poet Basil Bunting, or even Corky the Talking Dog... discovering the nightlife of Hamburg, the ice maidens of Reykjavik, sharing life on a beach with the models for a Pirelli calendar, or watching Antiques Roadshow being filmed in Jamaica, Colin Dunne was the man for any assignment that was identifiably barmy. And always back in the office were the reckless and the feckless, outrageous, disgraceful, immoral, completely unreliable, but also the richly talented, wildly inventive and, above all, endlessly amusing. An incredible account of the Great Days, the Glory Days, of journalism. And if you don't believe it, ask Corky.

Man Bites Talking Dog

DUNNE, Colin

How To Become A Millionaire!  As a schoolboy Johnny Inkster was told that money didn't grow on trees. But he knew that apples did, so he rented an orchard. Then he learnt that craftsmen who worked with wood - which also grew on trees - produced waste material that they would pay him to take away. And other people were prepared to buy it from him. Johnny Inkster was on the way to making his first million...  Journalist Jodi Cudlipp followed Johnny's intriguing trail from the orchard on the outskirts of London, via adventures in Docklands, at the Old Bailey, and the south coast of England, all the way to a luxury yacht on the French Riviera.

The Sawdust Millionaire

Cudlipp, Jodi

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Books by Revel Barker