The Very Best of Linda Smith

The Very Best of Linda Smith PDF Author: Linda Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description

The Very Best of Linda Smith

The Very Best of Linda Smith PDF Author: Linda Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


I Think the Nurses are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith

I Think the Nurses are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith PDF Author: Edited By Warren Lakin
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444718371
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Linda Smith was the brilliant mainstay of Radio 4's The News Quiz, Just a Minute, and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue for many years. She was just establishing her career on TV through blistering performances on Have I Got News for You, QI and Room 101, when she died of ovarian cancer in 2006. Linda was one of the few women to conquer the male dominated world of comedy and she had the wit and the charm to win over millions of male and female fans in equal measure. She had an eye for the absurdities of modern life and loved to prick the egos of the pompous and the vain. When she called David Blunkett 'Satan's bearded folk singer', it was a simple statement of fact. No wonder then Linda was voted the 'wittiest person alive' by Radio 4 listeners in 2002. This collection of her material, from her early stand-up to her radio days is a must-have for any comedy fan.

The Essential Linda Smith

The Essential Linda Smith PDF Author: Linda Smith
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Audio
ISBN: 9781844563289
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
A never-before-heard collection of archive recordings of the wit and wisdom of Linda Smith - a 'national treasure' of Radio 4 and BBC TV. Links narrated by Hattie Hayridge.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008 PDF Author: Lawrence Goldman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199671540
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1253

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Book Description
Who made modern Britain? This book, drawn from the award-winning Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, tells the story of our recent past through the lives of those who shaped national life. Following on from the Oxford DNB's first supplement volume-noteworthy people who died between 2001 and 2004-this new volume offers biographies of more than 850 men and women who left their mark on twentieth and twenty-first century Britain, and who died in the years 2005 to 2008. Here are the people responsible for major developments in national life: from politics, the arts, business, technology, and law to military service, sport, education, science, and medicine. Many are closely connected to specific periods in Britain's recent history. From the 1950s, the young Harold Pinter or the Yorkshire cricketer, Fred Trueman, for example. From the Sixties, the footballer George Best, photographer Patrick Lichfield, and the Pink Floyd musician, Syd Barrett. It's hard to look back to the 1970s without thinking of Edward Heath and James Callaghan, who led the country for seven years in that turbulent decade; or similarly Freddie Laker, pioneer of budget air travel, and the comedians Ronnie Barker and Dave Allen who entertained with their sketch shows and sit coms. A decade later you probably browsed in Anita Roddick's Body Shop, or danced to the music of Factory Records, established by the Manchester entrepreneur, Tony Wilson. In the 1990s you may have hoped that 'Things can only get better' with a New Labour government which included Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam. Many in this volume are remembered for lives dedicated to a profession or cause: Bill Deedes or Conor Cruise O'Brien in journalism; Ned Sherrin in broadcasting or, indeed, Ted Heath whose political career spanned more than 50 years. Others were responsible for discoveries or innovations of lasting legacy and benefit-among them the epidemiologist Richard Doll, who made the link between smoking and lung cancer, Cicely Saunders, creator of the hospice movement, and Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans. With John Profumo-who gave his name to a scandal-policeman Malcolm Fewtrell-who investigated the Great Train Robbery-or the Russian dissident Aleksandr Litvinenko-who was killed in London in 2006-we have individuals best known for specific moments in our recent past. Others are synonymous with popular objects and experiences evocative of recent decades: Mastermind with Magnus Magnusson, the PG-Tips chimpanzees trained by Molly Badham, John DeLorean's 'gull-wing' car, or the new British Library designed by Colin St John Wilson-though, as rounded and balanced accounts, Oxford DNB biographies also set these events in the wider context of a person's life story. Authoritative and accessible, the biographies in this volume are written by specialist authors, many of them leading figures in their field. Here you will find Michael Billington on Harold Pinter, Michael Crick on George Best, Richard Davenport-Hines on Anita Roddick, Brenda Hale on Rose Heilbron, Roy Hattersley on James Callaghan, Simon Heffer on John Profumo, Douglas Hurd on Edward Heath, Alex Jennings on Paul Scofield, Hermione Lee on Pat Kavanagh, Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Conor Cruise O'Brien, and Peregrine Worsthorne on Bill Deedes. Many in this volume are, naturally, household names. But a good number are also remembered for lives away from the headlines. What in the 1980s became 'Thatcherism' owed much to behind the scenes advice from Ralph Harris and Alfred Sherman; children who learned to read with Ladybird Books must thank their creator, Douglas Keen; while, without its first producer, Verity Lambert, there would have been no Doctor Who. Others are 'ordinary' people capable of remarkable acts. Take, for instance, Arthur Bywater who over two days in 1944 cleared thousands of bombs from a Liverpool munitions factory following an explosion-only to do the same, months later, in an another factory. Awarded the George Cross and the George Medal, Bywater remains the only non-combatant to have received Britain's two highest awards for civilian bravery.

Getting the Joke

Getting the Joke PDF Author: Oliver Double
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408177692
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
'This is the kind of book that troubles grey-suited committees of academic peers. It's too enjoyable. But that, given its subject, is just what it ought to be, and it treats that subject seriously . . . There isn't a “dull” page anywhere in the book.' – Professor Peter Thomson, Studies in Theatre and Performance Comedy is changing: stand-up comedians routinely sell out stadia, their audience-figures swollen by panel-show appearances and much-followed Twitter feeds. Meanwhile, the smaller clubs are filling up, with audiences as well as aspirants. How can we make sense of it all? This new edition of Getting the Joke gives an insider's look at the spectrum of modern comedy, re-examining the world of stand-up in the internet age. Drawing on his acclaimed first edition, Oliver Double focuses in greater detail on the US scene and its comedians (such as David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Louis CK, Demetri Martin and Margaret Cho); the 'DIY' comedy circuit and its celebrated apostles and visionaries, from Josie Long to Stewart Lee; the growing importance of the solo stand-up show; the role played by Twitter (including an interview with the organiser of the world's first comedy gig on Twitter), and the driving force that is the TV guest slot, be it on Mock the Week or Live at the Apollo. With expanded sections on joke construction, as well as ways to challenge the audience, and a host of new and updated exercises to guide the aspiring comedian, this new edition of Getting the Joke is the only book to combine the history of stand-up comedy with an analysis of the elements and methods that go into its creation. Featuring a range of interviews with working comedians – from circuit veterans to new kids on the block – combined with the author's vast experience, this is a must read for any aspiring stand-up comedian.

A Classless Society

A Classless Society PDF Author: Alwyn W. Turner
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781311420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
"Superb" NICK COHEN, author of What's Left? "Tremendously entertaining" DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Sunday Times "Like his previous histories of the Seventies and Eighties, A Classless Society is an extraordinarily comprehensive work. Turner writes brilliantly, creating a compelling narrative of the decade, weaving contrasting elements together with a natural storyteller’s aplomb… engaging and unique" IRVINE WELSH, Daily Telegraph "Ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived... Turner is a master of the telling detail" CRAIG BROWN, Mail on Sunday When Margaret Thatcher was ousted from Downing Street in November 1990 after eleven years of bitter social and economic conflict, many hoped that the decade to come would be more 'caring'; others hoped that the more radical policies of her revolution might even be overturned. Across politics and culture there was an apparent yearning for something the Iron Lady had famously dismissed: society. The 'New Britain' to emerge would be a contradiction: economically unequal but culturally classless. Whilst Westminster agonised over sleaze and the ERM, the country outside became the playground of the Ladette. It was also a period that would see old moral certainties swept aside, and once venerable institutions descend into farce - followed, in the case of the Royal Family, by tragedy. Opening with a war in the Gulf and ending with the attacks of 11 September 2001, A Classless Society goes in search of the decade when modern Britain came of age. What it finds is a nation anxiously grappling with new technologies, tentatively embracing new lifestyles, and, above all, forging a new sense of what it means to be British. "Deserves to become a classic" EDWINA CURRIE "Rich and encyclopaedic" ROGER LEWIS, Daily Mail "Excellent" D.J. TAYLOR, Independent

New Books on Women, Gender and Feminism

New Books on Women, Gender and Feminism PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Feminism
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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The Devil, the Lovers, & Me

The Devil, the Lovers, & Me PDF Author: Kimberlee Auerbach
Publisher: Dutton Adult
ISBN: 9780525950219
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
The author describes her survival of an abusive relationship, her mother's mid-life sexual proclivities, and the interference of friends and her father during a promising new romance, challenges that prompted her visit to an atypical tarot card reader.

The Tribune

The Tribune PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Driving Miss Smith: A Memoir of Linda Smith

Driving Miss Smith: A Memoir of Linda Smith PDF Author: Warren Lakin
Publisher: Hodder
ISBN: 9780340932797
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In February 2006 the comedian Linda Smith died from ovarian cancer. Over the previous ten years Linda had established herself as one of the nation's funniest and best-loved comedians, voted the 'wittiest person alive' by BBC Radio 4 listeners. As any regular listener will testify, Linda was an acerbic political commentator, but she also had an eye for the absurdities of modern life - an eye to rival Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood. In DRIVING MISS SMITH, Warren Lakin, Linda's partner for twenty-three years, tells Linda's life story, of growing up in a town called Erith, which wasn't twinned with anywhere, 'but does have a suicide pact with Dagenham,' and of becoming a much-loved Radio 4 fixture. It is a witty and moving memoir, and although it ends sadly, it is ultimately a hopeful book and a fitting tribute to a life filled with warmth, courage and laughter.