George Alagiah
A Home From Home

When the eleven-year-old George Alagiah was dropped off at boarding school in Portsmouth back in 1967 he was confronted with the very private struggle faced by all immigrants: the battle to leave the past behind and fit into a new culture. In turns both comic and poignant, A Home from Home is the story of George Alagiah's journey from Asian boy to English man; from the homesick, diffident child who suppressed his tears to the household name he is today.

George Alagiah presents the Six O'Clock News, Britain's most watched news programme, and World News Today on the BBC's international TV news service. As a leading BBC foreign correspondent, he has reported on some of the most significant events of the last decade, and has won recognition from Amnesty International. His first book, A Passage to Africa, won the Madoc Award at the 2002 Hay Literary Festival.

Pam Ayres
Surgically Enhanced

Pam Ayres is one of the world's best-loved poets, and her wry observations on the peculiarities of modern life raise a smile from even the most hardened cynic. In Surgically Enhanced Pam tackles a range of subjects - kissing, raising teenagers, adopting a dog, learning to ski and many more - with her trademark wit and perceptions. Among the many delights are a few favourites from Pam's stage shows, such as The Packing Poem and They Should Have Asked My Husband - printed here in full for the very first time - and newcomers like The Battle of Portaloo and, of course, I'm Going to Be Surgically Enhanced. This new collection, her first for nearly ten years, is a must-have for anyone who enjoys beautifully crafted poems, stories and sketches that make you laugh and make you think.

Pam Ayres has been a regular on TV and radio for over thirty years, and performs her solo stage show throughout the UK and other countries. She was awarded the MBE in 2004.

Warm, impulsive, and funny, Griff Rhys Jones takes a trip through his golden age - back to a childhood in the sixties and seventies - by car, by bus, by bicycle, but mostly on foot. This is the story of a confident middle child. Griff's devoted parents gave him love, security and plenty of asparagus soup. Griff relives the freezing bus journeys to school and the spontaneous theft of that half-a-crown from Charlie Hume's money box; sitting outside Butlins at Clacton (longing to be inside and on the Waltzer instead of stranded on the pebbles with his dad); hazy summer afternoons spent with feral gangs in the woods, or storming the mudflats. The memories are like Mivvis, frozen and fuzzy at the edges, but a sweet jam of pure recollected goo at the centre. A laugh-aloud buffet of baby-boomer Britain, Griff's self-deprecating, elegant prose reveals a little bit better how on earth you got from there to here.