Graham Lord

Short Stories of Marcel Ayme (181p)

The first biography of legendary barrister, novelist ("Rumpole of the Bailey"), and all-around colorful character, John Mortimer

The Devil's Advocate - The Unauthorised Biography

John Mortimer

The editor of a celebrity magazine (a cross between Hello! and Titbits) has decided to throw a party. Not just any old party but THE party, to mark the start of the new millenium. Her staff rapidly discover that this is not an original idea as all the possible venues (Everst, the Taj Mahal etc) have been booked for years. Fortunately for her sanity and future employment, her secretary manages to hire a brand new cruise ship which will be stationed on the International Date Line at midnight at the end of the century. All that is now needed is to persuade 2000 celebrities to accept the invitations to the great event. However, the Editor has more enemies than friends, several of whom are included on the party list and have good reason for settling some personal scores ...

A Party to Die For

A profile of the life and career of the creator of the popular Rumpole of the Bailey series describes his own long-term service as a barrister, his receipt of a knighthood and a British Book Awards trophy for Lifetime Achievement, and his struggles with depression and insecurity. 10,000 first printing.

The Secret Lives of Rumpole's Creator

Draws on the Academy Award-winning actor's private papers, manuscripts, unpublished stories, and correspondences to discuss Niven's deeply unhappy personal life, discussing such topics as the childhood death of his father, the death of his beloved first wife, and his volatile second marriage. 15,000 first printing.

The Authorized Biography of David Niven

Alf Wight, a modest Scottish writer, better known as James Herriot, wrote books that became worldwide best sellers, films, audiobooks, and a much-loved television show. In The Life of a Country Vet, Graham Lord has written a detailed and affectionate biography of this remarkable man. Lord carefully documents Wight's life, beginning with his childhood in Glasgow and his years in veterinary college. Following his development as a writer, the source of his pen name, and his struggles to get published. Along the way, we encounter some extraordinary events and hidden tragedies in this seemingly magical life. Millions of fans laughed and cried at Wight's delightful stories of life as a vet. Lord reveals that some of the stories were utterly true, and some were utterly fictional. He illuminates the real relationships between the memorable characters that inhabit the books. This warm yet insightful portrait by Lord - who knew his subject very well - will be enjoyed by Wight's myriad of fans. It also dispels the myths that have grown around the life of one of the most famous and deeply loved vets the world has known.

James Herriot: The Life of a Country Vet

John Mortimer was a promising barrister who married a successful novelist (Penelope Mortimer) and then started writing himself. At first he wrote plays, most famously the autobiographical A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER, about his blind barrister father. Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave were among those who played the role.But it was Mortimer's creation of Rumpole of the Bailey, the irrascible barrister created on TV by Leo McKern, which catapulted him to wider fame and fortune, as his career as a novelist and screenwriter took off. He is credited with the hugely successful TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (Olivier, Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Toyah Wilcox) and then Summers Lease (John Gielgud), based on his own story.Meanwhile he had become increasingly well-known as a lawyer. His most famous case was his (initially unsuccessful) defence of two of the three editors of the underground magazine Oz on a charge of obscenity in 1971.

The Devil's Advocate : the Unauthorised Biography

In Britain every generation produces a national treasure, a lovable figure so English that he could not possibly be of any other nationality, and Sir John Mortimer is just such a figure.Mortimer has delighted millions all over the world with seven television series about the gloriously larger-than-life fictional barrister Horace Rumpole --- Rumpole of the Bailey --- as well as novels, autobiographies, stage plays, film scripts, short stories, television and radio plays, newspaper articles, and even an opera and a ballet. Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Alec Guinness appeared in his plays, and among his greatest theatrical triumphs is his stage and television play A Voyage Round My Father. He won a British Book Awards trophy for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.Mortimer actually practiced as a barrister for thirty-six years, defending husbands, wives, pornographers, and murderers in court and starring as the real-life "Devil's Advocate" in several legendary obscenity and blasphemy cases in the 1970s, quickly becoming a liberal hero.Yet despite huge success, fame, and knighthood there lurks beneath that genial "champagne socialist" mask an unusually complex man who has been plagued by depression, doubt, insecurity, and an irresistible urge to commit adultery.Biographer Graham Lord, whose discovery that Mortimer had a secret son by the British actress Wendy Craig forced Sir John to admit it publicly in 2004, has interviewed scores of Mortmer's family, friends, mistresses, and enemies to write a frank and vital biography that reveals the startling reality behind the beloved public figure. "Breathless prose and many juicyrevelations-an absorbing read."--Kirkus Reviews

The Spider and the Fly

The Short Stories of Marcel Aymé

This book, the first comprehensive study of Aymé's work, explores the thematic and structural unity masked by the astonishing variety and complexity of the oeuvre. It underlines the constant tension between peasant and Parisian, moralist and entertainer, head and heart that gives Aymé's work its charm. After a preliminary chapter on Aymé the man, the book turns to an examination of Aymé's recurrent themes: sexual repression, schizophrenia, social order, illusion, thwarted ambition. This is complemented by an exploration of Aymé's art: the fluent, ironic style, the comic reversals, the rise-and-fall patterns, the personal and collective crises, the increasing tension in a flawed victim. These patterns combine with Aymé's key themes to convey a tender but tormented world-view where the vision of the moralist and the needs of the entertainer are finely balanced indeed.

Marcel Aymé

A Party to Die for

Twenty years after his death, David Niven is remembered with warmth, affection, and as one of the funniest and most lovable men who ever lived.

The Authorised Biography of David Niven

In a full portrait of one of the world's most beloved animal writers, the author reveals the man behind the myth, exploring his tragedies and triumphs in detail

The Life of a Country Vet

James Herriot

Mozambique and Zimbabwe : a Quest

Ghosts of King Solomon's Mines

Peter Hallam has it all - a good job with all the perks, a loving wife, a comfortable circle of friends and financial security. The only blots on the horizon are a layabout son and a dotty mother-in-law hunkered down in the spare room. But within days of the appointment of a new M.D. he is out of work, and at forty-five it seems his working life is over. As his debts mount at the same rate as his job applications are rejected the rest of his life falls apart - his friends drop him, his son sneers at him and when he is forced to put the house on the market his wife leaves him for his 'best' friend. Spiralling into despair and possibly destitution he discovers the hideous reality of how failures are treated in the caring '90s, but he also discovers a stalwart and highly unlikely ally - Monica, his mad mother-in-law. Born into a tougher world than he has ever known, she bolsters his ego and urges him back onto his feet. Her philosophy of never letting the buggers get you down also embraces the view that revenge is the sweetest dessert, and between them they embark on a thoroughly satisfying mission to ensure those who dish out bitter medicine have a good dose of it themselves.

Graham Lord

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