British Life

Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, 19 prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it.

From a Nottingham alleyway to a global empire, Threads is the story of a truly unique British fashion icon. Read by Bill Nighy, this audiobook includes an exclusive interview between the actor and Sir Paul Smith. ‘I always say that you can find inspiration in everything. And if you can't, look...

From the host of The Rest is Classified podcast, this is the secret history of MI6 - from the Cold War to the present day. 'The history of MI6 in the words of real spies' Mail on Sunday 'The best post-1949 account of British intelligence I have read' Spectator 'As gripping as any novel'...

Set in 1930s London, Winifred Watson’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day recounts twenty-four hours in the life of a governess who turns up for a very unexpected first day at work. Watson’s comedic, light-hearted novel is read by Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand, who plays Miss...

After coming perilously close to blowing his life savings on a convertible he can't afford, Rob Temple shares his tragic journey through the absurd impulses, bold reinventions, and utter cringe of the midlife crisis - a wild ride we all face if we're lucky enough to keep on aging. Are you...

From Doctor Who to Tip Toe, Queer as Folk to Coronation Street, Britain’s foremost television writer and showrunner takes us behind the scenes of some of the nation’s most beloved programmes. In The Queerest of Folk, Russell T Davies traces his remarkable career in television, from his early...

Poor Jean Collins. She stepped out into the road without looking and now lies broken in hospital. But what distracted her? And why was she carrying a box of vanilla slices, the cream cakes she only ever bought for special occasions? Jean's daughter Anne travels back up north to find out. But her...

The extraordinary story of British junior officers in the First World War, who led their men out of the trenches and faced a life expectancy of six weeks. During the Great War, many boys went straight from the classroom to the most dangerous job in the world - that of junior officer on the Western Front. Although desperately aware of how many of their predecessors had fallen before them, nearly all stepped forward, unflinchingly, to do their duty. The average life expectancy of a subaltern in the trenches was a mere six weeks.

‘A delightful odyssey through the history, nostalgia, fascination and British love of cake. Quirky, charming, and fun.’ PRUE LEITH The British take cakes seriously. We hold strong opinions about how to bake a brownie with the perfect squidge, the correct proportions of icing to sponge, and...

Dynamite and Davey: The Explosive Lives of the British Bulldogs is the triumphant but ultimately tragic story of Tom Billington and Davey Boy Smith. Cousins born just a couple of years apart in a small mining town near Wigan, Tom and Davey discovered the art of wrestling as schoolboys. Tom went on to become the Dynamite Kid, arguably the greatest and most pioneering wrestler in history, but his short temper and determination to reach the top of a sport dominated by naturally bigger men would be his undoing.

From the lauded, bestselling author of The Cazalet Chronicles, After Julius is Elizabeth Jane Howard's funny yet touching story of a family brought together yet falling apart. 'A novel that commands both respect and applause' – Sunday Times It is twenty years since Julius died, but his last...

Bloomsbury presents A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith, read by Jeremy Clyde. 'As brilliant a cosy crime novel as you'll ever read' JANICE HALLETT 'A masterful voice in the mystery world' S. J. BENNETT 1901. Gabriel Ward KC is hard at work on a thorny libel case involving London's most...

'An empowering read . . . it is refreshing to see somebody celebrate the role that black Britons have played in this island's long and complicated history' DAVID LAMMY, author of Tribes, in 'The best books of 2020', the Guardian 'Timely and so important . . . recognition is long overdue . . . I...

A compelling OMG love story, The Love of My Life is a bold, mysterious romance from Rosie Walsh, author of The Man Who Didn't Call. 'Dazzling' - Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs I have held you every night for ten years and I didn’t even know your name. We have a child together. A...

Learn and improve your English with the BBC. Collected here for the first time are 12 episodes from BBC Learning English's popular 6 Minute English series. Aimed at intermediate-level learners of English, each programme examines a different topic which is discussed and explained to help learners...

This is a revised and updated edition of an award-winning book, recognized as the authoritative work on the subject of British food. It is a breathtaking attempt to trace the changes to and influences on food in Britain from the Black Death through the Enclosures, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of Capitalism to the present day.

No animal better symbolises the desire to get closer and the need to respect distance than the owl. The silent approach of a white angel over a paddock is one of the most alluring images in the British countryside. The t’wit and the answering t’wo is a classic of the night. Both are tiny...

A poignant, challenging and witty memoir by one of Britain’s most senior journalists about the history of - and resistance to - immigration in the UK. In April 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered a speech that was to frame the debate about immigration in the UK for the next 50 years. ‘We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to allow the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents,’ he said. ‘It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.’ Kamal Ahmed was six months old at the time of Powell’s speech.

She came to the throne in 1952 when Britain had a far-flung empire, sweets were rationed, mums stayed home and kids played on bombsites. Seventy years on, everything has changed utterly - except the Queen herself, ageing far more gracefully than the fractious nation over which she so lightly...

Among the creatures that find the food, water, and shelter they need in our gardens, birds are the ones we notice the most, partly because the majority are active in the daytime. Of course, they can be a welcome distraction for us, as they go about their lives and we briefly escape from ours. From the Robin to the Blackbird, Starling and Chaffinch, this illuminating publication helps you identify common garden birds and reveals fascinating facts about them.