The Biggest Aspidistra in the World

A personal celebration of 50 years of the BBC

by Peter Black

Peter Black's selected recollections are personal, but ones he believes most readers will share: the days of cat's whiskers, crystal sets and oscillation; Jack Payne and his band, the Scrapbooks and Toytown, The Brains Trust, the famous ITMA years, the Christmas Day broadcasts of the second world war; and the rise of the Third Programme and the return and expansion of television, the great years of Take it from Here and Hancock's Half-Hour, leading to the satire wave, Z Cars and Alf Garnett.

Green boards / Silver inscribed spine

Football Report - An Anthology of Soccer

Edited by Willis Hall & Michael Parkinson

with a foreword by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., K.T. Goaldiggers' Coach, of which most can be read below:

As space for play, particularly in towns, becomes scarcer and more expensive, the natural inclination of children and young people to play and take part in games becomes more and more frustrated. The sole purpose of the Goaldiggers is to help provide, or improve, pitches or just play areas where children and young people can kick a ball about in safety. It may sound simple, but it is probably one of the most important social contributions it is possible to make. There is a desperate need in urban areas and in villages too sometimes for grass or hard surfaced pitches. So the Goaldiggers can truthfully claim to be concerned with the grass or asphalt roots of soccer, but to do anything about it they need money...

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

A three page script excerpt from the The Football Pools is included in this book

Football Report - An Anthology of Soccer

Edited by Willis Hall & Michael Parkinson

Football Report is a collection of football writing by the acknowledged best in the football writing field. But Football Report is rather more then just another football anthology: Football Report marks the first appearance in print of the Goaldiggers. The Goaldiggers are a bunch of football daft celebrities and nonentities who are out to make money in order to provide soccer pitches for kids who would otherwise go without. Celebrities among the Goaldiggers whose work may be found in the Football Report include: Arnold Bennett, Danny Blanchflower, Hunter Davies, Brian Glanville, Geoffrey Green, Willis hall, Arthur Hopcraft, Hugh Mcllvanney, David Miller, John Moynihan, Harold Pinter, Jack Rosenthal, Alan Simpson, Reg Smythe, Johnny Speight, Peter Terson, Keith Waterhouse - not a bad bunch of names it would seem with which to kick off any Football Report. In addition to which, the book also contains a selection of soccer cartoons from Punch.

Green boards / Gold inscribed spine

Particular Pleasures

by J.B. Priestley

A personal record of some varied arts and many different artists. Includes a series of essays on notable clowns (W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton, Tony Hancock and others), and on various actors, including Katharine Hepburn, John Gielgud, the Lunts, Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Claude Rains, Spencer Tracy...

Maroon boards / Gold inscribed spine

Both the William Heinemann, UK and Stein & Day, US publications of this book are easy to find second-hand. This book wasn't released in paperback

Laughter In The Air

An Informal History of British Radio Comedy

by Barry Took

A well known broadcaster and scriptwriter himself, Barry Took has talked to most of the leading figures in broadcasting from Sir Charles Curran to Cheerful Charlie Chester, from scriptwriters to producers, from the big stars to the character actors. Weaving together their reminiscences, his own personal anecdotes, and scrupulously researched fact, he presents a lively and fascinating inside story of the development of BBC radio comedy from 1922 to the present day that will appeal equally to the expert and to the interested layman.
Quoting from nearly forty shows from ITMA to I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, from Hi Gang to Hello Cheeky, from Much Binding In The Marsh and Take It From Here to The Goon Show and Hancock's Half Hour as well as from the brilliant radio soloists like A. J. Alan, Robb Wilton, Arthur Marshall and Frankie Howerd, Took conjures up the flavour of bygone favourites, and revives nostalgic memories of the voices and characters that have cheered our spirits and made us laugh down the years.

Maroon boards / Gold inscribed spine

Radio: The Great Years

by Derek Parker

'It's That Man Again!' . . . 'This is Henry Hall speaking' . . . 'We Three in Happidrome . . . 'Ying Tong Iddle I Po!' . . . To the millions of listeners who grew up with radio, these and many other catchphrases bring back instantly the flavour of the years gone by - when England seemed to come to a stop at 8.30 on Thursday evening for ITMA, and the 9 o'clock news was as much a part of the day as breakfast. People then actually preferred 'the wireless' to the theatre or cinema, 'because the scenery is better'. Derek Parker, himself a regular broadcaster for many years, recalls the personalities and programmes of the years between 1920 and the 1960s and 1970s.
He reminds us of the early outside broadcasts, the introduction of plays, sports coverage, the Brains Trust and the many other programmes that became part of British life: the renown of the Features Department that won the Italia prize again and again and original productions such as Under Milk Wood showed that radio could make its own contribution to the creative arts in drama as well as music. Then the vast BBC came under challenge first from the pop pirates, then from official independent radio.

Lime Green boards / Gold inscribed spine

Laughing Matter II

Best of the Best of British Humour

Edited and compiled by Kay Batchelor and Keith Maylin

The funniest things in life - as all good comic writers know - are based on those that really happen; which is why you'll find a good deal of real-life material in this book - such as the VIEWS OF THE WORLD pages, which are a collection of genuine newspaper cuttings. And if you have any more like them, or any other real-life stories, signs, notices or whatever, send them in to me. That goes for stories from any other country too, because - as you'll see - LAUGHING MATTER has gone international this year and (with some help from funny foreigners) contains quite a lot of American, Canadian, Australian, Irish and French humour.
My thanks as always to all the funny people - known and unknown - who's generously contributed to this second edition of LAUGHING MATTER. May their shadows never grow less. - Kay Batchelor

Ten of the Best British Short Plays

Edited by Ed Berman

This volume of plays marks the 10th anniversary of Inter-Action Productions. The plays featured in this book are as follows:

The Window by Frank Marcus
Dog Accident by James Saunders
Have You Met Our Rabbit? by Michael Stevens
Companion Piece by Michael Stevens
Dogg's Our Pet by Tom Stoppard
The Ragpickers by Norman Smythe
The (15 Minute) Dogg's Troupe Hamlet by Tom Stoppard
Hancock's Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams
The Irish Hebrew Lesson by Wolf Mankowitz
The Examination by Harold Pinter

Red boards / Gold inscribed spine

This script was originally published by Polytantric Press in a book entitled; Hancock's Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams, which you can see by clicking here