Though happy enough with his lot, Michael Simkins has never truly shaken the nagging doubt - helpfully upheld by his partner Julia - that he somehow lacks worldly sophistication. While she spent her teenage years as a nanny on a boat moored at Cannes, his utter lack of travel experience (Weymouth, C...

. ...

Luvvies. Tyrannical directors. Useless agents. Less job security than an England football manager. Who'd be an actor? Michael Simkins isn't sure, even though he's been one himself for over thirty years. Join him backstage as he examines that business called showbusiness, from am dram to Holly...

A fat boy with a passion for sweets and a loathing for games, the young Michael Simkins finds in cricket a sport where size doesn't necessarily matter and a full-blown obsession is born. Now in middle-age, he still harbours the somewhat deluded belief that the England middle-order might usefully ben...

As a boy, Michael Simkins always wanted to be someone. While his friends were out getting laid and stoned, he was tucked up at home dreaming of his name in lights, of holding an audience rapt, of perhaps becoming a TV heart-throb, or having someone, anyone, ask for his autograph in the supermarket. ...

The year AD 122 was the first time a Roman Emperor had set foot in the Province of Britannia since the invasion in AD 43. No doubt he had read many reports concerning the damage caused by marauding tribesmen crossing from what is now Scotland into the Province. Hadrian, therefore, decided in the wor...

A comprehensive overview of World War I, from its causes to the trench-scarred battlefields of the Western Front and final Armistice, this enhanced eBook tells the story of the 'War to end all Wars', uniquely illustrated with atmospheric contemporary film footage. The assassination of Archduke Franz...

Raging for over four years across the tortured landscapes of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the First World War changed the face of warfare forever. Characterised by slow, costly advances and fierce attrition, the great battles of the Somme, Verdun and Ypres incurred human loss on a scale never...