‘A big life chronicled by truly the Upstart Crow of our generation’ – Dawn French

Ben Elton has done everything and worked with everybody. Now, in this frank, forthright, and hugely entertaining book, he tells the whole story.

Discover the truth behind iconic hits like The Young Ones, Blackadder, and We Will Rock You. Relive the pioneering stand-up of Saturday Live that birthed a comedy revolution. From being the BBC’s youngest-ever sitcom writer to his most recent, critically acclaimed stand-up tour, Ben reveals unique insights into his groundbreaking work.

He talks honestly about his relationships with brilliant friends, inspiring contemporaries, and occasional foes. His life off-screen has been just as challenging and funny as it has been on, and he unpacks it all with wit, insight, and of course, a ‘little bit of politics’.

For decades, Ben’s been making people laugh, think, and getting on plenty of wicks – these are the uncensored stories.

‘Funny and fascinating, it’s a story of triumph and disaster and is the closest you’ll get to understanding where great comedy comes from’ – David Mitchell

'Bloody marvellous' – Jo Brand

_{What Have I Done? was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller w/e 11/10/2025.}

In October 1963, Jimmy Tarbuck made his TV debut on Sunday Night at the Palladium, The young comedian stepped out on stage and brought the house down. Two years later, he was hosting the show.

As a football-mad youngster, Jimmy’s dream had been to play professionally for his beloved Liverpool FC. Meanwhile, his childhood friends John Lennon and Cilla Black shot to fame as chart-topping sensations of the Merseybeat phenomenon. But it was a gift for making people laugh that was to propel him to stardom.

Hosting the biggest show on British TV, he found himself on telly every week introducing superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Rudolf Nureyev. Then he went to America and there he was on stage with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, chatting to Elvis in Vegas and chinwagging with Sinatra in Miami. This was a golden age for British entertainers, and he takes us back to the camaraderie of those days, remembering his old muckers Eric and Ernie, Tommy Cooper and Kenny Lynch, laughing together as they conquered the world.

As his incredible story shows, Jimmy has gone through life seeing the funny side of everything and, even through tough times, he knows that laughter is always the best medicine. Read his autobiography for a big, joyful dose it.

‘A big life chronicled by truly the Upstart Crow of our generation’ – Dawn French

Ben Elton has done everything and worked with everybody. Now, in this frank, forthright, and hugely entertaining book, he tells the whole story.

Discover the truth behind iconic hits like The Young Ones, Blackadder, and We Will Rock You. Relive the pioneering stand-up of Saturday Live that birthed a comedy revolution. From being the BBC’s youngest-ever sitcom writer to his most recent, critically acclaimed stand-up tour, Ben reveals unique insights into his groundbreaking work.

He talks honestly about his relationships with brilliant friends, inspiring contemporaries, and occasional foes. His life off-screen has been just as challenging and funny as it has been on, and he unpacks it all with wit, insight, and of course, a ‘little bit of politics’.

For decades, Ben’s been making people laugh, think, and getting on plenty of wicks – these are the uncensored stories.

‘Funny and fascinating, it’s a story of triumph and disaster and is the closest you’ll get to understanding where great comedy comes from’ – David Mitchell

‘Bloody marvellous’ – Jo Brand

Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart.

Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.

‘I read it straight through in one sitting, then got up the next day and did it again’ The Times

‘Sunny, sultry, even tipsy, but with a genuine sting’ Guardian

‘One of the greatest visionary writers – and one of my favourites from the time I was young’ Barack Obama

Martina and Gustav, students in 1970s Stockholm, meet and fall immediately into coupledom. But what is coupledom? A route to marriage? A declaration of co-dependency? A new dimension of commitment and responsibility? A sexual confrontation? Or is it a habit that an intelligent person must consider breaking? Martina and Gustav discuss their relationship endlessly, between themselves and with others, as they try to make it work.

Engagement, set during a time of social change and political upheaval, sees Martina trying to engage with the world on her own terms. Unwilling to marry, she finds herself in a state of permanent engagement while her friends settle down to marriage and children; uncertain of the world’s future, she engages with demos, sit-ins and philosophy seminars in her quest for a new blueprint for joy. First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today.

Leah and her friends have been magically transported to the rainforests of Tanzania! Back in time and far away from home, the Wonder Team have to use all their skills to uncover the mysteries of the forest and find a way back to the present.

But there’s danger lurking in the rainforest. A gang of poachers are after the local chimpanzee tribe, and it’s up to Leah, Mimi, George and their new friend Bupe to find a way to save the animals from capture, before it’s too late . . .

The Wonder Team and the Rainforest Rescue is the third book in the bestselling series written with Jordan Glover and illustrated by Robin Boyden. Don’t miss Leah and her friend’s first adventures in The Wonder Team and The Forgotten Footballers and The Wonder Team and the Pharaoh’s Fortune.

From brutal schooldays to 80s anarchy, through The Young Ones, Bottom and beyond, Berserker! is the one-of-a-kind, hilarious memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.

Ade Edmondson revolutionized the comedy circuit in the 1980s and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution?

With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy: starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.

Nominated for Radio Times Moment of the Year for sharing his memories of Rik Mayall on Desert Island Discs.

‘The Berserker from The Young Ones and Bottom tells his story with self-effacing charm and no end of backstage anecdotes’ – Ian Rankin

‘Amazing’ – Richard Osman

‘Gloriously candid and wise all at once’ – Sara Pascoe

‘It is incredibly funny, but it is also a lot, lot more than that’ – Miles Jupp

‘More fun than reading Hegel, and also more enlightening’ – Louis de Bernières

‘Gripping? Julie Owen Moylan vividly recreates drab, grey postwar London and her characters are convincing to the end’ THE TIMES, ‘BEST NEW HISTORICAL FICTION’

‘Psychologically astute and emotionally absorbing, this is a heartfelt read’ DAILY MAIL

‘Emotional, immersive and utterly absorbing’ JENNIFER SAINT

—-

West London, 1958. 73 Dove Street is a shabby house in a shabby street.
But this boarding house’s attic room suits newcomer Edie Budd very well.
It’s somewhere to hide.

Tommie, on the second floor, is up in Soho every night.
There’s a man she’s pursuing –
whether he wants her or not.

Landlady Phyllis has thrown out her cheating husband.
She’s burned his belongings in the street.
Sometimes there’s no going back.

Three survivors living under one roof.
Each alone nursing their secret hurts – and hopes.
Because opening your heart could save or destroy you…

—-

‘A wonderfully evocative, immersive novel that brings 50s London to life, from the smog and the nightlife to attitudes towards women . . . a vivid, absorbing and ultimately uplifting read’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘The sense of time and place is beautifully evocative. It’s about pride and shame and love and loss and ultimately hope’ LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON

‘Once again, Julie Owen Moylan has created a world that feels completely real and vivid’ JODIE CHAPMAN

‘From the Rivoli Ballroom to the seedy nightlife of Soho, the characters leap off the page in this compelling mystery’ WOMAN & HOME

‘A beautiful story of friendship and new beginnings’ BEST

‘Gripping and atmospheric’ RED

Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart.

Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.

‘No writer since Dickens was so widely read, and so deeply loved, as Gabriel García Márquez’ Salman Rushdie

‘Few writers can be said to have written books that have changed the whole course of literature. Gabriel García Márquez did just that’ Guardian