Autobiography

Richard Hammond has a brilliant radio voice that draws you into his story immediately. His autobiography is wrapped around his Top Gear exploits so you also get to hear the background to those as well as the personal bits such as an appendicectomy and some very recalcitrant gall stones!

This is very much a laugh out loud audio autobiography and although what he goes through can at times be quite painful you just can't help laughing - it really is an uplifting personal story that I highly recommend.

What a rollicking read! Sometimes you do wonder how people can just swan through life and experience all the highs and lows and come out of it the other end. A brilliant and very witty memoir that is extremely entertaining.

Love it - and I recommend it.

This is a wonderful read - hilarious and honest, brusque and bonkers; detailing the highest peaks and lowest ebbs of the one and only Ozzy Osbourne. After reading it one thing really hits home, it's amazing that he's still with us -I'm sure a lot of people thought that way after seeing him on the reality tv show "The Osbournes", but it's not until reading this that I realised just how much he drunk; snorted; smoked, etc.

A great "aha" book which offers a keen insight into the pro's and con's of being in a relationship with a person with Aspergers Syndrome - from both sides of the story.

This is the first time that such a frank account has been written and should be seen as a must read for anyone wishing to understand what it's like, not only having Aspergers, but also living with someone that has it.

Written by 13 year old Luke Jackson, this is the real life "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" as Luke is the genuine article - a boy who uses his Aspergers syndrome as a way of teaching the world, through this book, what it's really like living with the condition. Often humorous and quirky, this nonetheless is a very illuminating read.

A rollercoaster of a book - even more remarkable as it's based on cold, rock hard fact. Andy Kirkpatrick, daredevil and ace climber extraordinaire, lived, breathed; wept and cursed the worlds toughest mountain faces and has survived, in conditions that would make Ray Mears stay at home wrapped up in bed!

This is an entertaining and breathtaking read, as it marries Andy's childhood growing up in Hull with his tackling one of the most challenging mountains in California, El Capitan.

I consider Fred Astaire as one of my hero's and it was a wonderful insight into reading this, his autobiography. For me, Fred Astaire had a je ne sais quoi about him - it was in the way he danced, obviously, but it was also the way he walked into a room, and the way he talked. He also had a certain way of singing - I have a sublime album of him singing with the Oscar Peterson Trio (who were the house band for Verve records, and recorded at many of the Jazz at the Philharmonic). His style is so relaxed and inflexive - laid back and listening to it is like floating off on a breeze.

Marie Helvin, half Japanese, half American supermodel, best known to most of us for her enduring, exotic beauty and her association with the iconic photographer, David Bailey. Here she tells her own story.

From an idyllic, free, childhood in Hawaii to international celebrity, she frankly and disarmingly documents the highs and lows of her life and the people who were important to her.

Emusoi is an extraordinary book written by Kasia Parham and illustrated by Emmanuel from the Dogodogo Centre, with a foreword by Gareth Thomas, Minister of State, UK Department for International Developement.

Simon King's rendition of his book Wild Life is to put it simply, quite brilliant. Most of us have seen him helping to present the Spring and Autumn Watch and the Big Cat Diary in Kenya but did you know how much filming he's done for other people - such as David Attenborough with Planet Earth and The Blue Planet - I didn't know quite how much Simon had done or travelled to film for our entertainment and benefit.