Hugh Laurie: The Biography - Tapa dura

From Blackadder to A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster to House, Hugh Laurie has entertained millions in a career spanning three decades. Hugh was born in Oxford, and his father, WGRM 'Ran' Laurie, was a doctor who won a gold medal in the coxless pairs at the 1948 Olympics. Hugh followed in his father;s footsteps as a rower at Cambridge, but when he was forced to hang up his oars through illness, he joined the famous Cambridge Footlights and there began a career in comedy, It was at university that he met Stephen fry, and the pair forged a hilarious partnership that continued through the 1980s and 1990s, as they appeared together in the Blackadder series, sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie and PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. Hugh has also enjoyed great success on the big screen, starring in Sense and Sensibility, 101 Dalmatians, Monsters vs Aliens and the three Stuart Little films. But it is the character of irascible doctor Gregory House, in the US TV drama House, that has brought Hugh Laurie global fame. He has won two Golden Globes for the role and received a prestigious Emmy nomination in 2005, and continues to receive critical acclaim for his performances in the show - especially for his near-perfect American accent.

Anthony Bunko is a writer and biographer who is also the author of several highly acclaimed comedy fiction novels, including the fabulously titled The Tale of the Shagging Monkeys. In 2007 he released an award-winning book of visual poetry called Working up to the Slaughterhouse and in 2009 he collaborated with Stereophonics star Stuart Cable on his autobiography, Demons and Cocktails.