David Jason is Britain's best-loved star. From his wonderful characterisation of Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses to Detective Jack Frost and Mr Micawber, he has captured the heart of a nation. This remarkable biography traces the life of Britain's favourite actor from his humble roots in north London through his days as an electrician to Sir David Jason, the icon we all know and love. Recruited to an early Monty Python project for his masterful sense of timing, David soon attracted the attention of Ronnie Barker with whom he appeared in episodes of the classic BBC comedy series Porridge and Open All Hours. He has gone on to create many of television's popular and enduring characters, earning numerous accolades, including the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Actor, a Top Television Comedy Actor at the British Comedy Awards and a BAFTA fellowship for his outstanding contribution to television. He also received the ultimate tribute in 2005; a knighthood from the Queen. Revealing the man behind Del Boy, Pop Larkin and Jack Frost, this authoritative biography offers valuable insight into his life and loves, covering the tragic loss of his partner of eighteen years, Myfanwy Talog, and the joy of his secret wedding to new love Gill Hinchcliffe, and the birth of their daughter Sophie Mae. It paints a complete portrait of one of England's funniest and most talented actors; a true national treasure.

David Jason is Britain's best-loved star. From his wonderful characterisationf Del Boy in "Only Fools and Horses" to Detective Jack Frost and Mr Micawber,e lights up our television screens whenever he appears and has captured theeart of a nation. Having recently received the ultimate accolade - anighthood from the Queen, he is no longer just the people's champion. Thisemarkable new biography traces the life of Britain's favourite actor fromis humble roots in north London through his days as an electrician, to theavid Jason we all know and love. It is based on the actor's own memories,nd also recollections from friends, relatives and co-stars of both stage andcreen. It paints a complete portrait of one of England's national treasures.

Winner of the National Book Awards Autobiography of the Year The long-awaited autobiography of one of Britain's best-loved actors Born the son of a Billingsgate market porter at the height of the Second World War, David Jason spent his early life dodging bombs and bullies, both with impish good timing. Giving up on an unloved career as an electrician, he turned his attention to acting and soon, through a natural talent for making people laugh, found himself working with the leading lights of British comedy in the 1960s and '70s: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Bob Monkhouse and Ronnie Barker. Barker would become a mentor to David, leading to hugely successful stints in Porridge and Open All Hours. It wasn't until 1981, kitted out with a sheepskin jacket, a flat cap, and a clapped-out Reliant Regal, that David found the part that would capture the nation's hearts: the beloved Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in Only Fools and Horses. Never a one-trick pony, he had an award-winning spell as TV's favourite detective Jack Frost, took a country jaunt as Pop Larkin in the Darling Buds of May, and even voiced a crime-fighting cartoon rodent in the much-loved children's show Danger Mouse. But life hasn't all been so easy: from missing out on a key role in Dad's Army to nearly drowning in a freak diving accident, David has had his fair share of ups and downs, and has lost some of his nearest and dearest along the way. David's is a touching, funny and warm-hearted story, which charts the course of his incredible five decades at the top of the entertainment business. He's been a shopkeeper and a detective inspector, a crime-fighter and a market trader, and he ain't finished yet. As Del Boy would say, it's all cushty.

In the thirty years since viewers first visited Nelson Mandela House, Only Fools and Horses has won countless awards and is still Britain's most-watched and best-loved sitcom. Del Boy's overwhelming popularity has even inspired the Oxford English Dictionary to include a selection of his most famous words and phrases, such as 'lovely jubbly' and 'twonk'. In this fascinating, entertaining and meticulously researched book, acclaimed biographer Graham McCann goes behind the scenes to tell the inside story of Britain's most enduring comedy. With major contributions from the people who wrote, produced and starred in the programme and with material drawn from the BBC archives, it's time to take one last trip down Hooky Street . . .

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: a hilarious and heartfelt new autobiography from the national treasure Sir David Jason 'There are British telly icons and then there is Sir David Jason. This book is such gold . . . an absolute delight' ZOE BALL ___________________________ 'During my life and career I have been given all sorts of advice and learned huge amounts from some great and enormously talented people. I've been blessed to play characters such as Derek Trotter, Granville, Pop Larkin and Frost, who have changed my life in all sorts of ways, and taught me lessons that go far beyond the television set. And I've worked a few things out for myself as well, about friendship, ambition, rejection, success, failure, adversity and fortune. With any luck, some of these thoughts and observations will chime with episodes and challenges you have faced, or are facing, in your own life. And if they don't. . . well, hopefully, at the very least you'll get to have a good old laugh at my expense. So lean back, pour yourself a glass, and try not to fall through the bar flap . . .' ___________________________ 'An absolute delight . . . a romp with so much detail. Offers wisdom in difficult times . . . like being invited into his living room' BBC BREAKFAST 'It's beautifully written . . . so conversational and chatty . . . it's so lovely and warm' CHRIS MOYLES

______________________________ The 'endlessly funny' novel widely regarded as a classic of comic English literature Porterhouse College is world renowned for its gastronomic excellence, the arrogance of its Fellows, its academic mediocrity and the social cache it confers on the athletic sons of country families. Sir Godber Evans, ex-Cabinet Minister and the new Master, is determined to change all this. Spurred on by his politically angular wife, Lady Mary, he challenges the established order and provokes the wrath of the Dean, the Senior Tutor, the Bursar and, most intransigent of all, Skullion the Head Porter - with hilarious and catastrophic results.

"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (The Christian Science Monitor) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book. Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously uncomfortable memory of buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina. In essay after essay, Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life-having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger on a plane or armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds-to the most deeply resonant human truths. Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from "a writer worth treasuring" (Seattle Times). Praise for When You Are Engulfed in Flames: "Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --Kirkus Reviews This latest collection proves that not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better....Sedaris's best stuff will still--after all this time--move, surprise, and entertain." --Booklist Table of Contents: It's Catching Keeping Up The Understudy This Old House Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? Road Trips What I Learned That's Amore The Monster Mash In the Waiting Room Solutions to Saturday's Puzzle Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool Memento Mori All the Beauty You Will Ever Need Town and Country Aerial The Man in the Hut Of Mice and Men April in Paris Crybaby Old Faithful The Smoking Section