Welcome to our BBC Shop Blog! Check back here on a regular basis for the latest news on new BBC releases. We will also feature interviews, clips, guest bloggers, authors and BBC talent. All your BBC favourites at BBC Shop.
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Q&A with Alan TitchmarschMarketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
What was your favourite childhood book? Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Which book has made you laugh? Blandings Castle by P G Wodehouse
Which book has made you cry? Captain Corelli’s mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Which book are you reading at the moment? Radical Classicism by David Watkin about the architecture of Quinlin Terry
Which book would you give to a friend as a present? Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Which other writers do you admire? Daphne du Maurier, Alan Bennett, P G Wodehouse, Jane Austen
Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it? Possession by A S Byatt
What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?
1. Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
2. Emma – Jane Austen
3. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
4. Blandings Castle by P.G. Wodehouse
5. The Curiosity Shop by Dickens
What is the worst book you have ever read? The Highway Code
What is your favourite time of day to write? Morning the earlier the better
And favourite place? The barn next to my house
Longhand or word processor? Laptop
Which fictional character would you most like to have met? Lord Emsworth
Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time? Charles Dickens
Which book have you found yourself unable to finish? War and Peace
What is your favourite word? Generosity
Other than writing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered? Gardening, acting
What was the first piece you ever had in print? ‘Fur and Feathers’ about furry-leafed plants!
What are you working on at the moment? 5 paperback gardening guides: How to Garden and another volume of autobiography ‘Knave of Spades’
Take a look at the great range of Alan Titchmarsch titles here
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Great Clip from How Not To Live Your Life - Order the DVD hereMarketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Penelope Keith voted nation’s most captivating voiceMarketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
TV and radio actress Penelope Keith’s voice has been voted Britain’s most captivating in a survey of over 1100 people run by the BBC’s online retailer BBCShop.com. Keith pipped Shakespearean and film actor Derek Jacobi to the top spot for her role as Agatha Raisin, the feisty female sleuth in a series of Radio 4 dramatisations of M.C. Beaton’s popular novels , as well as her unabridged audiobook reading of ‘Agatha Raisin and the Deathly Dance’.
BBCShop.com hosted the poll which featured 12 audio clips from some of the nation’s most entrancing readers including Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, Martin Jarvis reading Just William by Richmal Crompton, Juliet Stephenson reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge and Sir Derek Jacobi reading M.R. James Ghost Stories, Volume One. The clips were hosted anonymously without reference to the title or reader to encourage participants to listen to the voices and vote on their qualities alone. Other popular nominations not included in the poll were Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Robert Glenister, Dorothy L.Sayers, and David Niven.
On finding out the news Keith commented: “I’m delighted! M.C. Beaton’s books are enormous fun and Agatha is brilliant to portray as she is such a larger than life character, I’m glad that listeners are enjoying her as much as I am. Many thanks to all who voted for me and especially to my friends at BBC Audio Books in Bath who contributed so much to Agatha Raisin.”
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Funny new Top Gear video - Clarkson beatboxing!Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
In the Night Garden comes to the big screen!
Screenings from Friday 20 March until Thursday 2 April at 11:00am and 11:55am unless otherwise stated. Pay for children's tickets, adults go free. Contact the individual cinemas or call 087 1704 2068 for details for more details.Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
UKTV Launches Blighty!Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
The rebranded Blighty channel will highlight the best of Britain. Visit our Best of the BBC department here or go direct to Blighty here
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Red Dwarf To Return To TV!Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Cult comedy Red Dwarf is returning to TV, 21 years after its initial launch! The show has been resurrected by digital channel Dave for a two-part Easter weekend special, which sees the cast finally return to Earth. Catch up with old episodes and visit our Red Dwarf Store
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Children in Need cupcake recipes from BBC Good FoodMarketing Manager - BBC Shop.com
Try these cupcake recipes by Raymond Blanc, Gordon Ramsay, James Martin and other celebrity chefs and sell them to raise money for Children in Need!.
- Find the recipe at bbcgoodfood.com or support the cause and visit our Children In Need Store
Haley Johnson
Online Marketing Executive - BBC Shop.com
Upsy Daisy in Dream Dozen Toys for 2008Online Marketing Executive - BBC Shop.com
The Toy Retailers Association today included Hasbro's Upsy Daisy and her Chase and Play Bed in the Dream Dozen Toys for 2008. The Dream Dozen Toys 2008 list is the only official prediction of best-sellers for the festive season.
- Buy Upsy here or visit our Toy Store
Haley Johnson
Online Marketing Executive - BBC Shop.com
Radio Times Dalek cover voted the best UK magazine cover of all time!!Online Marketing Executive - BBC Shop.com
The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) has announced that ‘Vote Dalek', the iconic Radio Times front cover from May 2005, has been voted the best UK magazine cover of all time.
More than 10,000 people across the country voted in the poll for ‘The Great Cover Debate' which was organised by the PPA in support of Magazine Week, which starts today.
- why not subscribe to Radio Times & other magazines at our Magazine Store!
www.bbcshop.com/magazines
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBCShop.com
Top Gear License Plate Sells For £10,000!!!Marketing Manager - BBCShop.com
Top Gear Store at BBC Shop
In an auction of personalised number plates held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), one of the stars was the plate 'THE 571G', which sold for 26 times its £400 reserve. If you are a fan of Top Gear and can't quite afford this price - why not visit our Top Gear Store for a great range of DVDs, Merchandise & Books!
www.bbcshop.com/topgear
www.bbcshop.com/topgear
Rupert Majendie
Marketing Manager - BBCShop.com
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy voted the nation’s favourite audio bookMarketing Manager - BBCShop.com
The Primary Phase
Release date: 02/04/2001. Our price £11.79
Great news!Release date: 02/04/2001. Our price £11.79
The winner was chosen from a selection of 40 titles which appeared in a special Guardian supplement on 28th June, the public were then invited to vote for their favourite title on a dedicated website:
www.40bestaudiobooks.co.uk
The top five titles reflect the wide range of audio books available covering everything from modern fiction to Shakespeare with another BBC Audiobooks title I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue: Anniversary Special being voted into 5th place.
Matt Master
freelance motoring correspondent - Top Gear magazine
Following up on Crap Cars and My Dad Had One of Those, Top Gear celebrates the midlife crisis with the definitive collection of the flashest, fastest, most impractical cars to be found in the driveways of otherwise perfectly sensible men.freelance motoring correspondent - Top Gear magazine
Midlife Crisis Cars
Published by BBC Books on 8th May 2008, £9.99
Published by BBC Books on 8th May 2008, £9.99
The kids have flown the nest, taking with them any last vestige of parental responsibility or self-respect. Time to trade-in that practical estate car for something lean, fast and powerful – a car that allows you to refute your mortality. A car that gets a choke-hold on the very essence of your fleeting youth.
Part celebration, part condemnation, but all of it uncomfortable, irrefutable truth, Top Gear’s Midlife Crisis Cars identifies over 50 classics of the genre across four desperate decades. Scoring each with a ‘crisis rating’, it charts the successes and failures of middle-aged man and his machines, from the timeless class of Aston Martin to the South Beach sleaze of an Eighties Ferrari, from certain death in old Porsches to spiritual enlightenment in an innocuous Japanese super-saloon.
A showcase of the most ridiculous attempts to hide the bald spots and expanding midriffs, Top Gear’s Midlife Crisis Cars honours the age-old tradition of flushing your children’s inheritance on something you’re probably too arthritic to get into in the first place.
Matt Master is a freelance motoring correspondent. He writes for Top Gear magazine as a features writer and road tester but lives down a muddy lane only passable by tractor. This is his first book.
Part celebration, part condemnation, but all of it uncomfortable, irrefutable truth, Top Gear’s Midlife Crisis Cars identifies over 50 classics of the genre across four desperate decades. Scoring each with a ‘crisis rating’, it charts the successes and failures of middle-aged man and his machines, from the timeless class of Aston Martin to the South Beach sleaze of an Eighties Ferrari, from certain death in old Porsches to spiritual enlightenment in an innocuous Japanese super-saloon.
A showcase of the most ridiculous attempts to hide the bald spots and expanding midriffs, Top Gear’s Midlife Crisis Cars honours the age-old tradition of flushing your children’s inheritance on something you’re probably too arthritic to get into in the first place.
Matt Master is a freelance motoring correspondent. He writes for Top Gear magazine as a features writer and road tester but lives down a muddy lane only passable by tractor. This is his first book.
Laurence Rees
Historical writer and documentary filmmaker
Laurence Rees, award winning historical writer and documentary filmmaker, chooses his six favourite books on the Second World War. His own latest book, a collection of his encounters with people tested to the extreme in WW2, Their Darkest Hour, has just been published in paperback by Ebury Press. His new book World War Two: Behind Closed Doors will be published by BBC Books this autumn.Historical writer and documentary filmmaker
BEST BOOKS… LAURENCE REES
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning (Penguin £9.99)
At one level a cool analysis of the actions of a Nazi Reserve Police Battalion during the Holocaust; at another a devastating insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis, and the power of the situation to shape us all.
Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte (New York Review Book Classics £8.99)
Part novel, part WW2 history book; Malaparte’s triumph in this evocative work was to create a semi-autobiographical, descriptive novel that still offers the insights of a great work of history. Notable in particular for his bizarre dinner with Hans Frank, Nazi ruler of central Poland.
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (Penguin £16.99)
A masterpiece of historical narrative and a book that will still be read in a hundred years. Beevor manages to make military history accessible to readers who aren’t interested in tanks or guns – and all because of his immense capacity for emotional empathy.
War Without Mercy by John Dower (Random House)
One of the most insightful books about Japanese mentality during the war, and an examination of the racism of many of the Allied soldiers who fought against them. Dower’s book reveals that there were far fewer ‘good guys’ in the War in the Pacific than we might like to imagine.
Commandant of Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoess (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £9.99)
Written in prison after the war, shortly before he was executed, these are the personal memoirs of the man who ran the largest murder factory in the history of the world. An astonishing glimpse into the mentality of one of the most cold hearted of all Nazi perpetrators.
Hitler (vol 1 Hubris, vol 2 Nemesis) by Ian Kershaw (Penguin £14.99 each)
Kershaw is a scholar of genius, and this two volume biography of Adolf Hitler is the product of nearly thirty years academic research. Worth reading even for those not particularly interested in this period in order to be humbled by the clarity of Kershaw’s thinking.
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