Untold Stories brings together some of the finest and funniest writing by Alan Bennett, one of England's best-known literary figures."[Bennett] does what only the best writers can do—make us look at ourselves in a way we've never done before." —Michael PalinAlan Bennett's first major collection since Writing Home contains previously unpublished work—including the title piece, a poignant memoir of his family and of growing up in Leeds—along with his much celebrated diary for the years 1996 to 2004, and numerous other exceptional essays, reviews, and comic pieces. In this highly anticipated compendium, the Today Book Club author of The Clothes They Stood Up In reveals a great many untold secrets and stories with his inimitable humor and wry honesty—his family's unspoken history, his memories of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and his response to the success of his most recent play, The History Boys.Since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s, Bennett has delighted audiences worldwide with writing that is, in his words, "no less serious because it is funny." The History Boys opened to great acclaim at the Royal National Theatre in 2004, winning numerous awards, and is scheduled to open in New York City in April 2006.

"Radical Survivor" chronicles elementary school principal Nancy Saltzman's extraordinary saga as a two-time cancer survivor who lost her entire family in a small plane crash. Told with honesty, insight and laugh out loud flashes of humor, Radical Survivor traverses the full spectrum of human emotions. Several aspects of this book make it unique among memories. *The book is enriched by letters to the author interwoven with narrative throughout the book. Most of the notes were received after the death of her family, but some are mementos from her husband and entries from her son's journals. *The author has experienced an extraordinary number of life challenges: two bouts of breast cancer before she turned forty; the loss of her entire family--husband and two young sons--in a small-plane crash when she was in her early forties; the premature death of her sister; losing her father to cancer and her mother to Alzheimer's Disease. *The story is uncommonly open and honest about what one must go through in a catastrophic accident resulting in multiple deaths. Yet it also shares the strength that can be mustered when necessary, and showcases one woman's remarkable resilience in the face of ultimate loss. *We learn how the heart ultimately makes room for both loved ones lost and happiness found.

Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh

is drawn from Ann Thwaite’s Whitbread Award-winning biography of A. A. Milne , one of England’s most successful writers. After serving in the First World War, Milne wrote a number of well-received plays, but his greatest triumph came when he created Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and, of course, Christopher Robin, the adventurous little boy based on his own son.

Goodbye Christopher Robin

inspired the film directed by Simon Curtis and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie and Kelly Macdonald. It offers the reader a glimpse into the relationship between Milne and the real-life Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood.

Goodbye Christopher Robin

is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.

"I think no more of taking a wife than I do of buying a cow."

In 1863 24-year old Ann Eliza became the 19th wife of the 67-year old head of the Mormon Church

Brigham Young.

Ten years later, in a landmark case that would rock the nation and lead to the rewriting of laws, Ann divorced her powerful husband alleging neglect and cruel treatment.

In 1876 Ann Eliza published an autobiography entitled

Wife No. 19.

In it she wrote that she had

"a desire to impress upon the world what Mormonism really is; to show the pitiable condition of its women, held in a system of bondage that is more cruel than African slavery ever was, since it claims to hold body and soul alike.”

Researchers believe Ann Eliza was in fact Brigham Young’s 52nd wife. Her blistering expose is a harrowing document revealing how Brigham Young and other Mormon men lived in households that were essentially harems, using their religion to justify what amounted to sexual slavery. Mormon men were said to be

“building their kingdoms”

while their wives were forced to share their love and suffer in silence at the degradation.

Upon commencement of her divorce proceedings, Ann Eliza was excommunicated from the LDS Church. The divorce was granted in January 1875 and Brigham Young was ordered to pay a $500 per month allowance and $3000 in court fees. When Young initially refused, he was found in contempt of court and sentenced to a day in jail and a $25 fine. The alimony award was later set aside on the grounds that a polygamous marriage was legally invalid, potentially indicting them both for unlawful cohabitation.

Ann Eliza Young subsequently traveled the United States and spoke out against polygamy, Mormonism, and Brigham Young himself. She testified before the U.S. Congress in 1875; these remarks were credited, by some to have contributed to a passage of the Poland Act (1874) that reorganized the judicial system of Utah Territory and made it easier for the Federal Government to prosecute polygamists.

*Illustrated with Mormon image gallery.