When Philip Serrell - now well known for his television appearances - gave up teaching to become a professional auctioneer, he thought he was embarking on a sensible and safe career . . . a quiet life in the country with no surprises. In THE AUCTIONEER'S LOT we found out how wrong he was. SOLD TO THE MAN WITH THE TIN LEG Philip describes more of his extraordinary experiences as a country auctioneer, aided and abetted by some of the most colourful characters Worcestershire has to offer. Fro...

DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK'A sparkling memoir... My hope is that Philip Serrell will do for the antiques trade what James Herriot did for cow's bottoms, as his memoir contains every ingredient for similar popular success... Serrell is laugh-out-loud funny.' Roger Lewis, Daily Mail***When Philip Serrell gave up teaching to become a professional auctioneer, he thought he was embarking on a sensible ...

The well-known TV auctioneer's entertaining and informative memoir of a life under the hammer.When Philip Serrell - now well known for his television appearances - gave up teaching to become a professional auctioneer, he thought he was embarking on a sensible and safe career . . . a quiet life in the country with no surprises. How wrong he was. In WHAT AM I BID? he tells of life after the events he described in AN AUCTIONEER'S LOT (2006) and SOLD TO THE MAN WITH TH...

From priceless eighteenth-century dining tables hidden away in decaying farm sheds to tattooed travellers with a penchant for Wedgewood china, professional auctioneer Philip Serrell has seen it all. In An Auctioneer's Lot he brings to life a world in which the most valuable antiques frequently turn up in the most unlikely places - and accompanied by the most unlikely people. For over twenty years he has uncovered a huge range of priceless (and occasionally worthless) antiques, and...

Brought to you by Penguin.The long-awaited autobiography from beloved star of Just a Minute, QI, Have I Got News For You and Celebrity Gogglebox.There are few people Gyles Brandreth doesn't know or hasn't met - from the Queen to the Sex Pistols, Mandela and Marlene Dietrich to TS Eliot, he's the celebrities' celebrity, as familiar and welcome to us on radio and screens as biscuits are to a cup of tea.Now a grandpar...

For today's reader, who is living through our biggest social dislocation since the Second World War and witnessing a crisis of unprecedented proportions, Blitz Spirit is a book written to gently invite comparison and provoke questions about our place in history.Becky Brown has selected extracts from the Mass Observation Archives to anthologise the voices of everyday people as they deal individually and collectively with the crisis of the Second World War. The diarists them...

Brought to you by Penguin.'When I see something old, that I think is beautiful, special, valuable, it's not about the money. It's about being in another time and place.'Star of TV's Salvage Hunters, Drew Pritchard will go to the greatest lengths for the best deals. He discovered the casts Lord Elgin made of his infamous marbles in a school garage, and broke the bank to buy the tool box Malcolm Campbell used when he set the water speed reco...

Brought to you by Penguin.Change is in the air for Jack Sheffield and the Ragley village school.It's 1987, and after a decade as head teacher at Ragley-on-the-Forest School, Jack Sheffield is looking to the future. He and his wife are expecting a new baby, the school is preparing for the introduction of the new National Curriculum, and the coming year promises a whole host of other surprises. Whether it's combing the church for an escaped p...

Brought to you by Penguin.The year is 1976 and Jack Sheffield never wants to leave his job.Jack has been the deputy head teacher at Newbridge Primary School for six years now, and he's happy exactly where he is - even if it sometimes feels like there are a few things missing from his life. After all, the kids keep him busy and there's always a game of rugby to play.But it's a time of change, and Jack's world is no exception. New and...

A thoughtful, articulate and important book about the rise of English nationalism and the impending breakup of the United Kingdom from one of the finest BBC journalists of the last twenty years.How Britain Ends is a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness. In the past, it was possible to live with delightful confusion: one could be English, or British, Scottish or Irish and a citizen/subject of the United Kingdom (or Great Britain). For y...

***Dressed For War: The Story of Audrey Withers, Vogue editor extraordinaire from the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties***is the untold story of our most iconic fashion magazine in its most formative years, in the Second World War. It was an era when wartime exigencies gave its editor, Audrey Withers, the chance to forge an identity for it that went far beyond stylish clothes. In doing so, she set herself against the style and preoccupations of Vog...

‘Her voice is absolutely, beguilingly conversational … Intelligent, allusive, iconoclastic, captivatingly intense … This is the news from the domestic frontline: personal, unique, unexpurgated, without propaganda, as it unfolded and was experienced … Splendid’William Boyd, GuardianWith the intimacy and wit of a Second World War Bridget Jones, Eileen Alexander offers a portal into life during the Blitz.Eileen Alexander fell i...