THE HEART-WARMING AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY BARBARA WINDSOR CHRONICLING HER EARLY CHILDHOOD IN LONDON’S EAST END TO RECEIVING A DBE IN 2000

‘A whopping, no-holds-barred rollercoaster of a book’ Mail on Sunday

`Barbara Windsor emerges from these pages as a personality both strong and sunny’ Sunday Telegraph

Born in the East End of London just before the war, Barbara Windsor made her first stage appearance at the age of 13. From her early roles as the original Carry On dolly bird to her longest role as Peggy Mitchell in the award-winning BBC drama EastEnders, her spectacular success in theatre, film and TV has made her a British icon – the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match.

Here, for the first time, she talks in depth about the people and events that have shaped her career: her lonely childhood, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, her legendary affairs, how she never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish. This is the heart-warming story of a courageous woman and consummate performer who has always made sure the show goes on.

‘By living up to its title alone it makes a nonsense of every other showbiz bleat ‘n’ brag ever put to paper’ Julie Burchill

‘Infinitely more interesting than the sentimental schmaltz we have read about her before’ Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph

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All Our Yesterdays looks at the British film industry from its troubled relations with the state; the links with theater, literature, music hall and broadcasting; to mainstream and independent cinema, genres, directors, stars and individual films. It provides a fresh, wide-ranging and often provocative account of British cinema.

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PREFACE     INTRODUCTION                                                                                       Chapter 1: The ORIGINAL SKYPE            Meet a cave dweller, an African king, an Egyptian pharaoh, a Greek goddess, a Christian saint, and others who let you know who they are and what matters. What would a Roman general and Elvis Presley have to say to one another? Chapter 2: Figure Things Out Art is traditional, innovative, noisy, silent, figurative, abstract, pretty, ugly, orderly or messy. Objects change meaning depending on where they are and what is around them. Chairs, windows, animals, people, and trees may show up in unfamiliar places. Understanding grows through dialogue. Chapter 3: STEP Back to Go Forward                      Images from ancient to contemporary art show views of time, nature, human relationships, and more. Artists transform invisible values into visible forms and reveal ways people and cultures make sense of their worlds.  Chapter 4: WHOSE LENS?            Labels and headlines lead you to expect certain ideas. Artists use their perspectives to manage yours. Your tastes, opinions, prejudices, and past experiences affect what you see. When you are alert to the difference between projecting and receiving, you can move from sight to insight.    Chapter 5: ART IN DIALOGUE                 Paintings from 16th century Iran and 20th century America talk to one another. They learn what is important to each by asking questions and modelling open-hearted dialogue. They see how artists in both cultures paint unreal scenes to seek what is real. Chapter 6: The CAPTURE            Students in communication and mediators in training meet modern art at the Hirshhorn Museum. They ask one another what they see and answer by describing. They discuss each others’ perceptions. Successful mediators must be fine observers and excellent listeners.  Chapter 7: QUESTION AND PLAY          Practice overhearing yourself through questions and play. Simple observations lead to complex ideas. Circles and lines make up pictures and provide metaphors in art and in life. Narrow categories limit understanding. Questioning art is a form of intercultural communication. Chapter 8: Travel  Go to new places through art without suffering culture shock. A bowl, etched with calligraphy, takes you on a journey to Iran, and a soup can goes with you to America. Both are more than their visual forms. Questioning them carries you from surface to depth.  Chapter 9: WHEN ART SPEAKS, LISTEN            Language of all kinds communicates, bewilders, clarifies, and obscures. Become fluent in the language of art and question its colours, materials, and forms – its titles, symbols, archetypes, and frames. “Speaking” the language of art leads to cultural fluency. Chapter 10: FOLLOW YOUR SENSES – SENSE MEANING     Body and mind work together. Your senses introduce you to art and to the rest of the world. Notice your first reactions, your thoughts and feelings. Then, return to the art by observing and describing. Open yourself to others’ stories. Chapter 11: MAKE SENSE OF THE SENSELESS         In the wake of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, artists used small things to confront large ideas. Prayer rugs and cheeseburgers are filled with meaning. Find spiritual beliefs, patriotism, war, sex, and politics, along with fears, loves, desires, and angers. Chapter 12: IN OTHER WORLDS             In 2010, the world watched the rescue of trapped Chilean coal miners. Artists take you underground to their dark world. Go more deeply into yourself through detailed questions about what you see in places you may never enter except through art.

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Athena to Barbie explores the vexed nature of being a woman. It maps the four corners of impossible choice a female faces because of the female body–her body as spiritual space (Mary), as political space (Athena), as erotic space (Venus), and as materialist space (Barbie). The book tracks the difficulty women face in understanding themselves as someone who has, but is not only, a body. The question of identity is particularly fraught and complicated when it comes to women–because the ability to bear children is a double-edged sword. Across time (including right now), having a womb has shaped how women are viewed and treated in negative ways, and women’s childbearing abilities have been used to stereotype, oppress, and constrain them. Pregnancy is powerful, but the possibility of pregnancy comes with impossible pressures and choices. This book takes on the task of reconciliation–how women can understand themselves in light of their bodies–through an intense dive into history, art, literature, theology, and, particularly, philosophy.

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The BBC Proms is the world’s biggest and longest-running classical music festival and one of the jewels in the crown for the BBC. Held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London and across the UK, it is one of the strongest brand names in the music world and attracts a glittering array of artists and orchestras from the UK and around the world. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or an experienced Prommer, watching at home or listening on radio or online, the BBC Proms Guide is an excellent companion to the festival, which you can treasure and return to in years to come.

Filled with concert listings and articles by leading writers, the BBC Proms Guide offers an insight into the performers and repertoire, as well as thought-provoking opinion pieces about music, musicians and music-making.

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