BELIEF

ALL THE NICE GIRLS

This wartime romance captures the danger and excitement of Britain during WWII. A sweeping story of heroic deeds and painful separations; illicit love and battles at sea; and above all, the poignancy of longing and loss.

THE CENTRE OF THE BED

Joan Bakewell was a sixties icon and one of the first women journalists on television, where she has maintained an influential presence ever since. This book traces her life from her childhood in Stockport, via Cambridge University to her professional and family life.

GREAT WRITERS' LIVES

For 20 years, Great Lives has been a cornerstone of the Radio 4 schedules, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. Each week, a well-known personality is invited to select someone who has inspired them. They then discuss the 'Great Life' with the presenter and a guest expert to decide whether their hero really merits the accolade. This special collection, celebrating the programme's 20th anniversary, contains the very best episodes featuring authors' lives - from novelists to poets, playwrights to food writers. The eclectic selections include Armando Iannucci on Charles Dickens, Caroline Criado Perez on Jane Austen, and Rich Hall on Tennessee Williams. Two Prime Ministers, John Major and Boris Johnson, discuss the lives of Rudyard Kipling and Samuel Johnson respectively, while MP Rory Stewart champions Sir Walter Scott and Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, nominates Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

SHE'S LEAVING HOME

Liverpool late 1950s, sixteen year old Martha is leaving home. It is a time of many escapes: Nureyev defects in London; Gagarin escapes the earth's atmosphere to be the first man in space; the Beatles escape Liverpool to seek their fortune in Hamburg. In Britain the drab 50s are giving way to the lively 60s and the young sense it.

STOP THE CLOCKS: THOUGHTS ON WHAT I LEAVE BEHIND

Joan Bakewell has led a varied, sometimes breathless life. In this book of musings, she talks of the present, of her family, of friends and literature - and talks too of what she will leave behind.

THE VIEW FROM HERE; LIFE AT SEVENTY

Now in her seventies, the broadcaster Joan Bakewell considers the physical, social and psychological consequences of growing old in a memoir glowing with warmth, wisdom and humour.