The story of Olive and Mabel, Labrador retrievers who rose to internet fame as the subjects of Andrew Cotter's BBC sports parodies. When sporting events were put on hold in March 2020, commentator Andrew Cotter shifted to working from home. The one-on-one competitors? His two Labrador retrievers, Olive and Mabel. In the hilarious videos that ensued, the dogs engage in various contests, from bone-snatching and breakfast-eating to crushing it on the dog walk, while Cotter narrates to hilarious effect. The scene of Mabel, simply standing still in a fetid pond was one of the most popular. Why? Because this is how dogs live, and Cotter captured it with humor and joy. It’s why the series has been viewed more than 50 million times, entertaining dog owners, sports fans and celebrities around the world. Olive and Mabel are more than online celebrities, however, as revealed in this charming narrative. Filled with stories about how Cotter fell in love with his dogs, his passion for hiking with them through the glens and over the peaks of his native Scotland, and the ongoing relationship between Olive and Mabel (particularly the “competitive fire” lit during these days of quarantine), the memoir is by turns side-splittingly funny and thoughtfully tender. It’s sure to resonate with all dog lovers.

Join two of the internet's favorite dogs and their owner, sports broadcaster Andrew Cotter, as he shares journal entries from life during the pandemic lockdown. Are you sitting nicely? Good. Let's discover exactly what happened after two superstar Labradors chewed up the lockdown internet and found it really quite tasty. He's not kept a journal for decades but here, in Dog Days, Andrew Cotter draws inspiration from the great Samuel Pepys; like him, he bears witness to the extraordinary everyday as the world tilts on its axis in our own unsettling era. And so, with Olive and Mabel at his side—actually, dawdling in the long grass or sleeping upside down—Andrew takes a clear-eyed, often hilarious walk through a year that encompasses all of life from the crushingly mundane to the decidedly odd. Followed by whispers of "Is that really Olive and Mabel?"—not to mention the occasional Hollywood approach—the three of them pad around literary festivals, breakfast TV, live radio, and even an appearance on Good Morning America. Slightly bemused by their fame, Andrew not only pitches up in the iconic Mastermind chair, but makes a return to sports broadcasting to find that it has become rather strange as well. But, always, his pair of utterly endearing, endlessly optimistic and eternally hungry canine companions show just how precious our time is. Especially our time spent in the devoted company of dogs. For fans new and old, this witty, insightful account of a year like no other is an unmissable treat.

With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”

The remarkable story of Endal, voted ‘Dog of the Millennium’, and how, through his remarkable skills, companionship and unstinting devotion, he gave Allen Parton a reason to live again.

"There's a special camaraderie among early-morning dog walkers. Gathering at dog runs in the park, or strolling through the farmer's market at Union Square before the ... crowd appears, fellow pet owners become familiar--as do the personalities of their ... animals. In this special space and time, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner's world. As fate would have it, her friend knew someone who was dying of cancer ... and desperate to find a home for her dog Harry. He was a bull terrier--the same breed as Martha's dear Minnie. Would Martha consider giving Harry a safe, loving new home? In short order, boy dog meets girl dog, the fairy tale part of this story. But there is so much more to this book"--

Tweed is one of Scotland's great gifts to the world. Woven into every strand of this most authentic and rugged of cloths is an extraordinary heritage of innovation and creativity. The Art of Tweed explores the landscapes, textures, and patterns of this glorious fabric. From the rolling hills of Scotland's country estates to the rhythmic clatter of looms in our last-surviving mills. From artisan weavers on the Isle of Harris to the high fashion of international catwalks and urban designers reimagining tweed for the streets. Here is a story of romance, nostalgia, sustainability, and style-- of an effortlessly versatile cloth and its unique place in our lives. Whether fashioned into a flat cap or tailored into a cape, the story of tweed is a story to be shared.