Alan Bennett has been called England's National Teddy Bear, so beloved is his work and person. It's a sweet moniker, but misleading to those who may not have yet read Bennett. Insightful and compassionate with a wit so sharp it effectively amputates sentimentality, this is a Teddy Bear with laser eyes and sharp claws that are only just retracted.

Bennett's character sketches in Talking Heads are devastating. The grown man whose safe little existence begins to unravel as he discovers his dear old mum has taken a lover, the vigilent, upright busybody who ends up in prison for invading her neighbor's privacy, the widow of "Soldiering On" whose emptiness of purpose is revealed through her inability to grieve--each uncomprehending character Bennett has created in these astonishing soliloquies is undone by his or her brave and steadfast unwillingness to acknowledge the bare-knuckled truth of human emotion.

Bennett is not cruel in revealing the weaknesses of his characters, but he is uncompromising in revealing those weaknesses. This is the Teddy Bear who brings to the picnic the sharp knives that cut through the bread and fat prepared and packaged by his companions.

Also recommended are Bennett's Writing Home, The Clothes They Stood Up In, and any and all of his other plays, particularly The Old Country; and, for those who just must have the soft and fuzzy version of the Teddy Bear, listen to Bennett's reading of Winnie the Pooh, or go see his stageplay of The Wind in the Willows.

Honestly I thought the story was quite dull he tells us about the dull part of their lives, I'm surprised I didn't sleep reading it. It's the worst book I've ever read. You probably won't put this on display on the computer, but you asked what I thought of it and I told you the truth, I'm sure many others agree with me that the story was boring. . Thankyou

I have been studying Alan Bennett and like many others find it highly amusing. It works remarkably well as a television series and not just on the page. The personalisation and connection to the viewer draws you in and makes it appear that each character is actually talking to you. Excellent work

This book is the ultimate self-help title. There are many great chapters--on raising your IQ, losing weight, fighting jet lag, and getting more out of your work outs--each one is worth the price of the whole book. For me, the biggest news was how to use caffeine to fight depression ( no more prozac for me!) and why caffeine pills can sometimes be more beneficial than coffee.
The book is thoroughly referenced and full of surprises. I say get this book and read it over a cup of your favorite java.
A coffee lover, NYC, NY

To my great relief and enjoyment, the authors have discovered that caffeine can make me smarter, faster, stronger, healthier,
thinner and happier, and that it can do so with complete safety. It's amazing how many things I found out about the drug that I and most of humanity use every day.

I spend about half my time on the road, much of it eating poorly (and drinking bad coffee!) in planes, airports and hotels, so I was particularly interested in the chapters on using caffeine to lose weight, fight jet lag and battle the common cold, not to mention the ones on how caffeine can raise my IQ (too late for that, I fear) and help me fight the common cold. The most important thing I took away from the book is that I can forget my caffeine guilt trip and actually enjoy something that's good for me. All the advantages and benefits of sensible use of caffeine highlighted in the book are backed up with academic and medical studies, so I'm quite disposed to trust the authors and follow their recommendations.

Last year I was given another book by the same team, "The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug", which won some prizes and was a great read. This new book I paid for myself, and I must say it's proving its value every day.

Coffee lover in NYC, NY

I am not a huge fan of old "nursery rhyme" type poetry, but this book caught my eye and my 3 yr old boys and I love it! The illustrations are simply amazing as each page unfolds from 2 children visiting an eccentric, storytelling neighbor to the children becoming the owl and pussycat. My boys immediately noticed the firepole in the man's house among other curiosities. As the children enjoy a snack and the man reads the poem, the floor turns to water and the window seat to a pea green boat. The bespeckled little boy becomes an owl and girl becomes a cat. The poem is read a second time with them as the main characters and the illustrations cleary 'telling' the story. Just as fluidly, the children return to human form and their mothers call them for dinner as the poem winds down. This book would certainly be a wonderful addition to a classic nursery rhymes collection.

If you're a fan of Hilary Knight's artwork (and if you're not, you ought to be), you will definitely want this book. Those who are only familiar with Knight's wonderful pen and ink drawings for Eloise and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle will be amazed at the beauty of his full color illustrations. This book is good enough for either your child's/nephew's/niece's bookshelf, or (in my case) your own. The illustrations of a young boy and girl slowly becoming part of the tale are beautifully rendered. I am glad to see so many Knight books on the market again, and hope that i will get to see some more.

Phillip Larkin rocks. When I was a sophmore in college I burned down my dorm room and my copy of High Windows. It was truly tragic. This slim little volume contains some of Larkin's best work. It is wry, revealing, and sardonic in true Larkin fashion. I particularly like the title poem and None of the Books Have Time. Also, there's one in there about the stubborn stupidity of old folks that is absolutely delightful and hilarious though the title escapes me at the moment. Anyway, this small book that won't take up either much time to read or much space on the shelf is a delightful and highly recommended piece. One of my all-time favorites.

More than thirty years ago, lovable British playwright Alan Bennett encountered an eccentric and difficult old woman, Miss Shepherd, living contentedly, eccentrically, and not without troubles, in her van - in his London neighborhood. Bennett, intrigued by her and concerned for her safety (which was not always assured) subtly befriended her. Within a few months she had moved the van to a parking spot across from his house. She stayed for years and this slim book, first published in 1989 as a long piece in "The London Review of Books," is the story of their gently and sometimes humorously intersecting lives.

In subsequent years Miss S.'s highly individual sense of upward mobility would find expression, and there would be replacement vans. Miss S. was a Catholic who loved to paint her vans and favored yellow - asserting "it's the papal colour." She was sometimes demanding of Bennett's time, requesting favors and errands of him. She never said "Thanks." She revealed precious little about her past: only of her current opinions. She wrote and sold pamphlets on the street that she claimed were authored anonymously. She sold pencils on the street, claiming that her pencils were the best. She was given to fanatical religious and political pronouncements, and outrageous statements of prejudice and some silliness. Her right-wing politics clashed with Bennett's, and her comments on current events - reported deadpan, and verbatim - were often very funny. Old age and its freight of health and personal problems dogged her, and Bennett did what he could to help.

Alan Bennett is a great listener. In addition he can tell a story simply and clearly, with precision and understatement. He tells just enough. He encourages his characters to speak for themselves.

This is a great little nonfiction story that is tender but never mawkish - told with wit and elegance.

Alan Bennett is the classiest act in literature. His personal style--wry, self-effacing--shades his writing, which manages to be delicate, ironic, and hysterically funny all at once. The title story is destined to be a classic, and if you loved "The Clothes They Stood Up In," it's sure to be something you read and reread. It's genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and it's quite astonishing how a seemingly lightweight take about the death of an ambisexual masseur can hone in on people's hopes and fears without ever becoming less than a breathtaking feat. The second, also more a novella than a shirt story, is less impressive but still very funny, sexy, and also sweet. The last is the least compelling--the prat of a protagonist makes it rough going--but this is the shortest of the lot by far. And the first take alone is well worth the price.

There are thousands of books on the subject of child abuse, but none match the exemplary style in which this was written.

I particularly liked the way the author honored his hero, Steve Sax, the once baseball great, to help overcome the horrible memories of child abuse.

Not only is this book an exceptional tool for those wishing to reconstruct their abused psyche; but to all parents on planet Earth, who ever said a mean word to their child.

There is something rather sadistic in Alan Bennett's portraits of self-delusion in "Talking Heads." In contrast, his short plays (originally teleplays) about very British Soviet spies are more open to complexity. The most interesting characters are Coral Browne as herself in "An Englishman Abroad" and the queen in "A Question of Attribution," though Burgess and Blunt are multidimensional in ways none of the talking heads are. The scene of the queen and Blunt which was played so well by Prunella Scales and Edward (or was it James?) Fox in the BBC production is brilliantly written. Bennett is, indeed, a master at writing lines that give away or seem to give away more than the character understands-or seems to understand. The audience knows best with the "artless" talking heads, but neither Blunt nor the audience can be quite sure if the queen has toyed with him or is as straightforward and concerned with concrete facts as she presents herself as being. "Who did what?" is also very much in question in the "Titians" Blunt is examining and in the puzzle of who was running the spies who were eventually revealed.

Larkin's poetry captures the melancholy, timelessness, and small dramas of everyday experience, and The Whitsun Weddings contains some of his best work (the title poem, Sunny Prestatyn, Dockerey and Son, for example). Alan Bennet's reading captures precisely the feeling of these poems. His careful, restrained inflections and changes of voice heighten Larkin's subtle effects and let each poem's feeling come in a natural and unforced way. A delightful tape from beginnning to end.

I think this book suitable for everyone not only for child but adult also can read it. My friend and I love this book and try to collect the whole of Pooh's series. But I think .. The house at the Pooh corner also lovely while The Tao of Pooh was very difficult to understand for child. However, I love it!!

How did I get to adulthood without reading Winnie-th-pooh? If the only Pooh you know is the Disney version,you are in for a feast. Pooh and his friends are so much more than the mindless,flat characters in cartoons. When we read this aloud to our three children,12,5,&3, they were enthralled. The oldest understood most of the underpinnings and the two preschoolers just loved the fun. Night after night the kids would line up by the sofa,begging for more Pooh. We were all sad when the book ended,but Pooh is always with us in our hearts.

Ya gotta get this book!

Yesterday I planned on reading "The Great Gatsby," but instead I read A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh."

What! you say.

Well, I bought it a while back, and I never sat down to read it. So yesterday I just grabbed it, and started reading---and despite the fact that it's meant for children, the insight it offers is unparalleled. Maybe some of you have read "The Tao of Pooh" (which I read in high school). That book explains how Winnie the Pooh behaves in a Taoist fashion. But instead of reading the "Tao" book, I think people could have done just as well, if not better, reading the original work.

I have great respect for an author who can write a work that appeals to both children and adults. Such is "The Phantom Tollbooth" or "The Wizard of Oz." Such is "Winnie The Pooh." The joy of reading Winnie is the absurd logic it follows. Or the way it satirizes adults, which it does quite well through the characters of Eeyore and Owl. For example, how can you NOT enjoy this passage from Chapter Four:

"The old grey donkey, Eeyore, stood by himself in a thirsty corner of the forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, 'Why?' and sometimes he thought, 'Wherefore?' and sometimes he thought, 'Inasmuch as which?'---and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about."

Now the only decision that remains is do I read the other Pooh book I bought, "The House at Pooh Corner" or do I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." Hmm.