Biography: arts and entertainment Books

Book SynopsisKing James, the greatest of all time.Named ''The Chosen One'' at just age 17, and with the iconic number 23 set to retire with him at the end of his career, LeBron fulfilled his destiny of surpassing scoring records and becoming one of basketball''s most well-known stars. A legend on the court and a humble family man at home, LeBron is a man of dedication and honour in every sense, with memorable thoughts about life, sports, family and more.Packed full of insightful and encouraging quotes, this pocket-sized tome covers all zones of LeBron''s accomplished and fascinating life. From his early years of childhood and rise to basketball stardom with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat to admiration and adoration from more of the greats, this little book highlights why the four-time crowned MVP is deemed one of the greatest of all time. People will hate you, rate you, shake you, and break you. But how strong you stand is what makes you

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Book SynopsisIt was said of the young Frank Sinatra that he came across as ‘St Francis of Assisi with a shoulder holster’. In Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret Los Angeles Police intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021 and extensive interviews with prime sources, including many who worked with Frank Sinatra and many more who tracked his long and fatal association with the American Mafia, notably his ongoing connection, after his original godfather was assassinated: Sam ‘Momo’ Giancana, who shared a lover with President John F. Kennedy. Sixteen days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 30 November 1963, nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $240,000 ransom was demanded from his father. While the FBI and Nevada and California law-enforcement agencies sprang into action, Frank secretly contacted his Mafia friends for help. The Mafia believed they could free young Frank much more quickly through their underworld connections. Some of those they questioned died. Revealed here as never before is the extent to which Sinatra was adopted by the Mafia. They promoted his career and ‘watched his back’ and, in return, Sinatra danced to their tune. New information disclosed here shows that Sinatra also offered to spy for the CIA. Inside sources say Sinatra wanted the CIA to intercede to stop an investigation into his gaming licence in Las Vegas. But the CIA declined because they were already working with the Mob and were concerned Sinatra would learn of the Mafia’s connection to the CIA and leak it. Trade ReviewPraise for the authors’ Bombshell: ‘The claims are hard to believe . . . but the source is so solid and credible that you will find this amazing story hard to dismiss’ Daily Mail ‘A sensational new book’ Sun

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Book SynopsisDrawing on new interviews and previously hidden police and intelligence files, Reckless finally reveals the full corruption of America's Camelot.

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Book SynopsisThe inside scoop on Queen Bey's life and career.

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Book SynopsisThe musical child of Russia’s golden age, Sergei Rachmaninoff, was the last of the great Romantics. Scorned by the musical establishment until very recently, his music received hostile reviews from critics and other composers. Conversely, it never failed to find widespread popular acclaim, and today he is one of the most popular composers of all time.Biographer Michael Scott investigates Rachmaninoff’s intense and often melodramatic life, following him from imperial Russia to his years of exile as a wandering virtuoso and his death in Beverly Hills during the Second World War, worn out by his punishing schedule.In this remarkable biography which relates the man to his music, Michael Scott tells the colourful story of a life that spanned two centuries and two continents. His original research from the Russian archives, so long closed to writers from the West, brings us closer to the spirit of a man who genuinely believed that music could be both good and popular, a belief that is now triumphantly vindicated.

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Book SynopsisWilfrid Brambell was one of Britain’s most loved and complex character actors. As Albert Ladysmith Steptoe, the unscrupulous rag-and-bone man with questionable habits in Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s long-running Steptoe & Son, he quickly became a household name with co-star Harry H. Corbett. But despite scores of other successes in roles on stage, TV and film, Brambell died a sad and lonely man.Alongside fame and fortune, ‘You Dirty Old Man!’ reveals how Brambell suffered unbelievable personal heartache, battling an inner turmoil that eventually drove him to drink as his marriage collapsed in the most deceitful circumstances imaginable. His torment led to a secretive life off camera where he did everything possible to stay out of the public eye.Featuring original interviews with film directors Richard Lester, Terence Davies and Tony Palmer, as well as recollections from his own family members, the family of Harry H. Corbett and those who worked alongside him, author David Clayton seeks to re-examine the legacy of a man whose loyal fanbase remains undiminished sixty years on from his heyday.

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Book SynopsisWhen beautiful heiress Nicky Samuel (1951-2019) left school at the age of 16, she was caught up in the world of Sixties London. Her first job was with Yoko Ono, and she soon fell in love with the owner of the fashionable hippy boutique ‘Granny Takes a Trip’, Nigel Waymouth, whom she married and with whom she later attended the legendary Isle of Wight Pop Concert. She spent time with celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, Roger Vadim, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Mapplethorpe. At nineteen, Nicky became a fashionable hostess. She was photographed by Norman Parkinson for Vogue; and her close friends included Mick and Bianca Jagger, Christopher Gibbs, David Hockney, Anita Pallenberg and the eccentric, reclusive heroin addict John Paul Getty Jr. Her marriage broke up when she became involved in a passionate menage-a-trois involving the film-director Donald Cammell. In 1974, Nicky married homosexual jewellery designer, New York socialite and fortune-hunter Kenneth Jay Lane. Her social success was such that she was featured as a ‘New Beauty’ by Time Magazine. However, she became so unhappy and drug-addicted that she attempted suicide in the London Ritz. Nicky’s is exactly the kind of superficially glamorous life to which many star-struck and celebrity-hungry people aspire; this memoir is also a uniquely vivid experience of a vanished world.

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Book SynopsisThe story of Coco Chanel in her own words, as told by her to Paul Morand Told in her own words, Coco Chanel's memories offer a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most influential women in fashion history. During a visit to St. Moritz at the end of World War II, Chanel shared intimate details of her life, loves and fashion philosophy with her life-long friend, Paul Morand. Only coming to light after Chanel's death, her intimate recollections reveal the secrets behind her success and the captivating charm that made her a true iconTrade Review“It’s an interesting memoir because it's all about what she thinks not what she did.” —David Patrick Columbia, The New York Social Diary “Morand was a citizen of the world, with a sharp eye and a neat turn of phrase.” —The Tablet “This enchanting, tiny book is the closest anyone can get to a face-to-face with Coco. It’s written in her voice (‘that voice that gushed forth from her mouth like lava’) and in her words (‘those words that crackled like dried vines’), and though it's full of lies, omissions and contradictions, there’s enough raw truth in it to reflect the extraordinary woman who was Chanel, even though glimpsed shard by shard in a broken mirror. —The Spectator “Paul Morand recaptures a WWII-era conversation between the author and the fashion icon.” —Publishers Weekly “Morand was the all-round aesthete.” —Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

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Book Synopsis"Thinking About Tomorrow" is the amazing tale of rock and roll survivor Keith West. A pioneer of psychedelic music in the 1960s with such songs as "My White Bicycle", and he also achieved international fame alongside Mark Wirtz with the song "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera".

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Book SynopsisThinking About Tomorrow is the amazing tale of rock and roll survivor Keith West. With his Tomorrow bandmates, Keith was a pioneer of psychedelic music in the 1960s with songs such as My White Bicycle. He also achieved international fame alongside Mark Wirtz with the song Excerpt from a Teenage Opera.

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Book SynopsisDelving into Frederick Sandys's unconventional life, Betty Elzea's research reveals much about his complicated and often scandalous relationships. Born and educated in Norwich with an artisan background, Sandys was bohemian by nature, though from necessity, to the world at large, he appeared genteel and respectable. Unfortunately disorganised, un-businesslike and preferring to live alone as a bachelor in lodgings, he struggled to support two growing families of illegitimate children. From youth, developing skills as a draughtsman and painter, he moved to London, meeting Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates, while keeping a foothold in Norwich where he maintained friendships and enjoyed the support of the Norfolk gentry and several notable Norwich industrialists. Norfolk landscape painting and nature studies led to commissioned portraiture which became his main source of income. He is known for depictions of beautiful women in legendary disguises as well as meticulously-detailed portraits of elderly women. He also pioneered a new type of large-scale portrait drawing in chalks.

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Book Synopsis'In this highly readable biography of Nellie Melba...Robert Wainwright tells the story of the girl with the incredible voice who, by sheer force of her personality and power of her decibels, took the operatic world by storm and managed to escape from her violent husband' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, DAILY MAILNellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. But to succeed, she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would have preferred she stay a housewife in outback Queensland rather than parade herself on stage. She endured the violence of a bad marriage, was denied by scandal a true love with the would-be King of France, and suffered for more than a decade the loss of her only son - stolen by his angry, vengeful father. Despite these obstacles, she built and maintained a career as an opera singer and businesswoman on three continents which made her one of the first international superstars. Award-winning biographer Robert Wainwright presents a very different portrait of this great diva, one that celebrates both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life.Trade ReviewIn this highly readable biography of Nellie Melba...Robert Wainwright tells the story of the girl with the incredible voice who, by sheer force of her personality and power of her decibels, took the operatic world by storm and managed to escape from her violent husband -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *Jolly gossipy reading, easily digested * The Telegraph *Wainwright's delightfully revisionist biography of Dame Nellie Melba rescues her from fusty Victorianisms to analyse her struggles and resilience to overcome misogyny and social expectation in becoming one of history's greatest opera singers. * Waterstones.com *[A] rounded portrait...the Melba that emerges is not only a prodigious talent but a trailblazing, fiercely independent and determined woman. * Sydney Morning Herald *Most people know the outlines of the career of the legendary nineteenth-century diva Nellie Melba, but this biography offers new insights. What Melba went through to become the toast of the musical world is almost unbelievable to our twenty-first century eyes and how she handled it makes for remarkablereading -- Judging panel for the 2022 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award (longlisted title)Wainwright has a reporter's eye for the telling detail, and an ear for good copy...a racy tale, and briskly told. * The Australian, on NELLIE *A gem of a biography. * The Lady, on ENID *My jaw kept dropping as I devoured Robert Wainwright's wonderfully racy biography, full of comedy and tragedy and populated by some of the most dissolute and eccentric aristocrats of the 20th century. -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail, on ENID *Enid's story is dazzling and uplifting, and she certainly lived up to her code: "Never be afraid, never be jealous, and never complain when you are ill." -- Christopher Silvester * Spears, on ENID *As social history Sheila Chisholm's life is fascinating... it's undeniably enjoyable to read of all that glitter and gold. -- Selina Hastings * Spectator, on SHEILA *Table of Contents1: Opposites attract 2: 'I must make some money' 3: 'You wait and see' 4: The audition 5: The house of women 6: The dress 7: Becoming Melba 8: 'You are the star' 9: Covent Garden 10: A doctrine of rivalry 11: 'An Australian girl' takes Paris 12: The devil who leaves 13: The patron 14: Taking a cold house by storm 15: Prince Gamelle 16: A diva meets a duc 17: To Russia with lust 18: Melba nights 19: 'I'll whip him and see what he's worth' 20: Crossing boundaries 21: Armstrong v Armstrong 22: A just dessert 23: Facing the music 24: Murphy's law 25: A resolute intent 26: The first singer in the world 27: A fall from grace 28: Of envious men 29: A Wagnerian tragedy 30: A Star-Spangled Banner 31: Divorce, Texas-style 32: Australia finally 33: The brutal Truth 34: 'I am five feet eleven inches' 35: The long farewell

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Book SynopsisTrailblazing women of Australian Public Broadcasting, 1945 – 1975 offers a compelling new perspective of Australian radio and television history. It chronicles how a group of female producers defied the odds and forged remarkable careers in the traditionally male domain of public-affairs production at the ABC in the post-war decades. Kay Kinane, Catherine King, Therése Denny and Joyce Belfrage were ambitious and resourceful producers, part of the vanguard of Australian broadcasters who used mass media as a vehicle for their social and political activism. Fiercely dedicated to their audiences, they wrote, directed and produced ground-breaking documentaries and current affairs programs that celebrated Australian life, while also challenging its cultural complacency, its racism and sexism. They immersed themselves in the ABC’s many networks of collaboration and initiated a range of strategies to expand their agency and authority. With vivid descriptions of life at the ABC, this book traces their careers as they crossed borders and crossed mediums, following them as they worked on location shoots and in production offices, in television studios, control rooms and radio booths. In doing so it highlights the barriers, both official and unofficial, that confronted so many women working in broadcasting after World War II.Trade Review‘Kylie Andrews’ fascinating book is a tour-de-force of feminist scholarship and media history. In rescuing the pioneering women of radio and television from the footnotes of history, it offers us not just a vivid panorama of highly talented programme-makers but an endlessly illuminating new take on post-war Australian broadcasting.’ — David Hendy, Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, England.‘A lively, impressively researched, and informative look at barriers faced, and battles won, by a select group of talented female producers at the ABC and beyond – battles won not only for themselves, but for the status of all women who have confronted the same attitudes and obstacles. An inspiring read.’ — Michele Hilmes, Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.‘This is an important, overdue ‘remembering’ of women’s role in the creation of the ABC - an entertaining read to set the historical (‘herstorical’) record straight - with startling insights into the good old days when the boys ‘owned the game’. It’s an eye-opener for younger program-makers to meet the feisty women who paved the way for them.’ — Caroline Jones AO, Veteran ABC broadcaster and national patron of Women in Media.‘This compelling and impeccably researched book uncovers the story of four colourful individuals, Joyce Belfrage, Therese Denny, Kay Kinane and Catherine King, and their outstanding contribution to Australian, and transnational, broadcasting. Battling a culture that was largely unsupportive of working women, Andrews brings their careers and achievements vividly to life.’ — Dr Kate Murphy, Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University, UK.‘This is a brilliant book unearthing the forgotten women of radio and television. Too often, male exploits take precedence in Australian historical recounts. Kylie Andrews has produced a work that is both entertaining and academic. Highly recommended!’ — Tracey Spicer, Broadcaster and Author.‘In the post-war years, the ABC carved out a distinctive role as a national broadcaster, both shaping and questioning Australian identity. Kylie Andrews’ passionate, highly engaging history tells the stories of groundbreaking women who worked for the ABC in those years, demonstrating that the ABC was not only ‘built by men’; it was built by women, too’. — Professor Michelle Arrow, Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University, AUS.‘In this lively and accessible work of historical reclamation, Kylie Andrews brings vividly to life the careers of four indomitable women at the ABC in the decades after World War II.' — Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, Macquarie University, Table of ContentsList of Figures; List of Abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introduction, Showrunners, Shot Callers and Flying Typewriters, Notes; 2. Career Snapshots, Kay Kinane, Catherine King, Therése Denny, Joyce Belfrage, Notes; 3. Welcome to the ABC, Ladies, How and Why ‘Women’s Work’ Was Marginalized at the ABC, Trapped in the Typing Pool, Acceptable Behaviour, Birds, Chicks and Old Ducks , Forbidden Domains, Contesting ‘Women’s Worlds’, Notes; 4. The New Nation-Builders, A Cuckoo in the ABC’s Nest, The Adelaide Legacy, The ‘Schoolie with the Motorbike’, The Scholarly Troublemaker, Nation-builders and Citizens but Not Feminists?, Notes; 5. Talent Was Not Enough, ABC Mentors and Gatekeepers, Opportunities Arising during Times of Disruption, Bargaining from a Position of Strength and Refusing to Be Bullied, Joyce and the ABC’s Transition to Television: A Cautionary Tale, Notes; 6. Thinking Outside the Box, Moving between Radio and TV , Manipulating the Message: Using the Press to Shape Public Personas, Embracing ‘Platform Agnostic’ Careers, Notes; 7. Timely Escapes and Bittersweet Homecomings, ‘New Ways of Living and Loving’, Notes; 8. International Adventures and Global Networking, Kay’s First Big Adventure: The Imperial Relations Trust, Some Benefits of Membership, Reversing the Tide: Taking Advantage of Polarities of Exchange, Joyce Makes the Most of Empire Employment Networks, Turning a Negative into a Positive: Therése Exploits Her Colonial Identity, Kay’s American Adventure, Networks of Collaboration and Support, Broadcasting Advocacy Goes Global, Notes; 9. Farewell to the ABC, Notes; 10. Epilogue, Revising Limited Historical Narratives, Notes; Reference List, Primary Sources, Industry Memos, Intra-ABC Communications and Reports, Personal Correspondence and Diary Entries, Audio and Audio-Visual Projects, Press, Newspaper and Magazine Articles, Interviews and Oral Histories, Industry Reports, Archive Reports and Legislation, Secondary Sources, Books and Book Chapters, Journal Articles, Conference Papers and Speeches, Websites; Index

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Book SynopsisThe compelling biography of the beautiful, talented Garman sisters and the glittering, romantic era in which they lived. Each of the seven Garman sisters were strikingly beautiful, artistic and wild. Born around the turn of the nineteenth century, most of the siblings were to become involved in the radical literary and political circles of British life between the First and Second World Wars. Their morals were unconventional: bisexuality, unfaithfulness and illegitimate children were a matter of course. Nevertheless they were high-minded and intensely loyal. They were the last muses: women who were prepared to sideline their own talent, friendships, material comforts – even their own children – in order to beguile and inspire the men they loved. Cressida Connolly's family biography delves into the lives of three of the sisters in intense and revealing detail. Kathleen Garman, the father's favourite, ran away to London to study music. She was spotted by the American sculptor Jacob Epstein, who promptly fell in love with her, and remained his muse until his death. They had three children, she was shot in the shoulder by his first wife and she finally became Lady Epstein in 1955. Mary Garman came to London with Kathleen and studied art at the Slade. She married poet Roy Campbell, who was to become the scourge of the literary establishment by espousing General Franco's side during the Spanish Civil War. Finally there was Lorna Garman, the youngest and most beautiful of all the family. At sixteen she married the wealthy Ernest Wishart, a landowner, communist and founder of the socialist publishing house Laurence & Wishart, who spent most of his life turning a blind eye to his wife's infidelities. Lorna was the love of Laurie Lee's life and they had a daughter. Lucian Freud painted several pictures for her. Through Cressida Connolly’s skilfull retelling of these remarkable lives, we get an intimate portrait of a golden age of romance, passion and art that is an original, beguiling read.Trade Review'Paints some wonderfully vivid pictures of how difficult the Garmans must have been to live with.' Sunday Telegraph 'Connolly writes with great elegance and perception about this ruthlessly sensual family.' Literary Review ‘A rollicking mix of the familiar and surprising.' Sunday Times ‘A sobering coda and an often hilarious tale.' Independent

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Book SynopsisRembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (c.1606-1669) was the most talked-about painter of the 17th-century - and quite possibly of the following centuries too. His prodigious talent, extraordinary emotional truth, and reckless disregard of artistic convention astonished, delighted and often dismayed his contemporaries; and the full gamut of these reactions is revealed in the three early biographies published here for the first time in their entirety in English. Sandrart, a German painter and writer on painting, actually knew Rembrandt in Amsterdam; Baldinucci, also an artist contemporary with Rembrandt, was one of the greatest early connoisseurs of prints; and Arnold Houbraken, who studied under some of Rembrandt's pupils, wrote the earliest major biographical account of the artists of Holland. These extraordinary documents give a vivid picture of Rembrandt's shattering impact on the art world of his time - not only as a painter, but as a supremely successful manipulator of the market, a dangerous example to the young, and an unavoidable challenge to any sense of decorum and rule-giving. Rooted firmly in the 17-century realities of Rembrandt's life, they bring into sharper focus the qualities of originality and psychological acuity that remain Rembrandt's trademark to this day. The introduction by Charles Ford situates these biographies in the context of 17th-century appreciation of art, and the trajectory of Rembrandt's career. The translations have been specially prepared for this edition by Charles Ford, aided by Ulrike Kern and Francesca Migliorini, and in part following the work of Tancred Borenius.Trade Review"The London publishing house Pallas Athene has come up with the very welcome and worthwhile project of assembling English translations of early biographies of artists in an easily accessible publication." - Historians of Netherlands Art Reviews

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Book SynopsisSamuel Palmer was one of the most original artists Britain has produced. Still a teen when he was plucked from "the pit of modern art," he embarked on an intensely personal journey that led to an astonishing outpouring of mystical drawings and later to England's first artistic colony, "The Ancients," based in the idyllic landscape of Shoreham. This book reprints the first major writings on Palmer, which were published for a retrospective exhibition in 1881. They include a biography by his son, A. H. Palmer, and a critical appreciation by Pre-Raphaelite artist and critic F. G. Stephens.Trade Review"The London publishing house Pallas Athene has come up with the very welcome and worthwhile project of assembling English translations of early biographies of artists in an easily accessible publication." - Historians of Netherlands Art Reviews

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Book SynopsisCritically acclaimed biography of one of England's best loved composers, with a full discussion and evaluation of his works. Gerald Finzi is one of the best-known modern English composers. While he is especially famous as a song-writer, for his sensitive settings of poets such as Hardy and Wordsworth, he also wrote in other genres; notable works includethe exquisite cantata Dies Natalis, and his cello concerto. He also exerted a major influence in the musical world as a whole, championing the neglected Ivor Gurney and reviving eighteenth-century composers with the amateur orchestra he founded. In this lively and sensitive study of his life and works, Diana McVeagh, the renowned Elgar and Finzi scholar, has made use of interviews with the main figures in his life, correspondence with contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams, Edmund Blunden, Arthur Bliss, Edmund Rubbra, Howard Ferguson and Herbert Howells, and her access to previously unpublished material in the form of his widow, Joy's, unpublished journal. The Finzithat emerges is a multi-faceted and complex character. The author shows how he developed from a solitary, introverted youth into a man with strong views and a myriad of interests: everything from education, pacifism, vegetarianism, to the Arts and Crafts movement, the English pastoral tradition, English apple varieties, and the significance of ancestry, friendship and marriage in an artist's life. She also discusses every work within the narrative of Finzi's life, and shows what makes his output so outstanding. Diana McVeagh is the author of the highly acclaimed Elgar the Music Maker [2007]; of the entries on Elgar and Finzi for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians [1980, 2001]; and of the Finzi entry in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [2004].Trade Review[T]he author's style is very easy indeed, informal and communicative. * RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SOCIETY JOURNAL *The book is very well researched and immensely informative. [...] From reading this particular biography, there is also the wish to read more by Diana McVeagh. * THE ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL *McVeagh's analyses unfailingly draw the reader's attention to the melodic and harmonic subtleties of Finzi's writing. At her best, as in a beautiful passage on Finzi and Hardy, she sings with a lyricism that matches Finzi's own. This book comes as a timely reminder that there should be a place for the finely wrought music of a minor master. -- Richard Lawrence * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *This has been long in preparation, but the wait has been worthwhile. Lucky the composer who finds so fair-minded, candid and scrupulous a biographer and one who writes so well...[McVeagh's] analyses achieve the rare distinction of being both illuminating and readable. This is one of the best-written books about a musician to appear for many years. -- Michael Kennedy * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *McVeagh surely loves Finzi's music and it shows. However her devotion is clear-eyed and her writing completely avoids the sort of pastoral hagiography that Finzi scholarship can easily collapse into. The book is self-recommending but that does not stop me recommending it. - * CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE WEB *[This] is unquestionably destined to be the standard biography of Gerald Finzi. - -- Rolf Jordan * RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SOCIETY JOURNAL *[Now] we have McVeagh at last, so good and so well written that those who already possess...other books must have it, not only to complement them but for the sheer pleasure afforded by such a winning combination of scholarship, insight and clear-eyed humanity.. their belief will be reinforced and intensified by Miss McVeagh's candour and her remarkable achievement in writing not only a good biography but in re-creating the atmosphere of English musical life in the half-century of Finzi's life. * FINZI NEWSLETTER *With clear-eyed affection for her subject, McVeagh relates Finzi's poignant history with clarity of design that does not preclude empathy, and never allows herself the luxury of letting him off lightly over either musical or personal foibles...[a] lovely, warm and elegiac book. -- Byron Adams * MUSIC & LETTERS *

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Book SynopsisThe Vivaldi Compendium represents the latest in Vivaldi research, drawing on the author's close involvement with Vivaldi and Venetian music over four decades. The Vivaldi Compendium will serve as the most reliable and up-to-date source of quick reference on the composer Antonio Vivaldi and his music. This takes the form of a dictionary listing persons, places, musical works and many other topics connected with Vivaldi; its alphabetically arranged entries are copiously cross-referenced to guide the reader towards related topics. The Vivaldi Compendium also provides a gateway to further reading via an extensive bibliography, to which reference is made in most of the dictionary entries. These two sections are complemented by a biography of the composer and a carefully organized list of his works. Knowledge about Vivaldi and his music is still advancing at an incredible rate - many discoveries occurred while the book was in preparation - and every effort has been made to ensure that The Vivaldi Compendium represents the latest in Vivaldi research, drawing on the author's close involvement with Vivaldi and Venetian music over four decades. MICHAEL TALBOT is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool and a Fellow of the British Academy. He isknown internationally for his studies of late-baroque Italian music, which include recent books on Vivaldi's chamber cantatas [2003] and the same composer's fugal writing [2007].Trade Review[A] a musicological masterpiece. It is also one of the most practical books ever published, a book that enables anyone [.] to find reliable and detailed information on almost every subject connected with Vivaldi within seconds. One cannot be grateful enough to the author for this painstaking and most helpful publication. * EARLY MUSIC *This fact-packed reference book incorporates the latest research on Vivaldi's life and music and is written in a terse, yet engaging, style. [...] this is an impressively wide ranging guide. * EARLY MUSIC TODAY *This amazingly comprehensive volume packs a huge amount of expert scholarship [...] into an extraordinarily small space. [...] an indispensable addition to the shelves of anyone with an interest in Vivaldi, whether scholar, student, performer or music lover. * THE CONSORT *[Ein] vorteffliches Buch [...], das durch Klarheit und Verstädlichkeit in bester Angelsächsischer Wissenschaftstradition besticht. * CONCERTO *It's called a compendium, but it could also be termed a dictionary or pocket (almost) encyclopedia dedicated to a composer whose present popularity worldwide far exceeds the actual knowledge of his life and works. The completeness of this realization [...] is praiseworthy. * MUSICA *[T]here is nobody internationally as well-placed as Talbot to provide such a versatile and friendly guide to Vivaldi [...] The Vivaldi Compendium will become an indispensable companion. * GRAMOPHONE *This compact volume by Talbot provides an excellent orientation and quick reference to the state of scholarship on the life and music of Antonio Vivaldi. [...] The scope of this bibliography is impressive [...] Highly Recommended. * CHOICE *[Talbot] is, at least as far as the Anglophone world is concerned, THE expert. ... I am sure that I will consult the Compendium frequently. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *The Vivaldi Compendium is an extremely useful encyclopaedia [...] All the subject matter is dealt with in a scholarly and expert way. It will provide the reader with an exhaustive and informative one-stop source for Vivaldi's life, music and world. The production of The Vivaldi Compendium, too, is well up to Boydell's high standards [...] For Vivaldi collectors and specialists The Vivaldi Compendium is almost a required item. Its scope exceeds anything otherwise currently available and is managed extremely well by an expert. Strongly recommended. * CLASSICAL.NET *

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Book SynopsisThe poet and musician Anthony Joseph met and spoke to Lord Kitchener just once, in 1984, when he found the calypso icon standing alone for a moment in the heat of Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah, one Carnival Monday afternoon. It was a pivotal meeting in which the great calypsonian, outlined his musical vision, an event which forms a moving epilogue to Kitch, Joseph’s unique biography of the Grandmaster.Lord Kitchener (1922 - 2000) was one of the most iconic and prolific calypso artists of the 20th century. He was one of calypso’s most loved exponents, an always elegantly dressed troubadour with old time male charisma and the ability to tap into the musical and cultural consciousness of the Caribbean experience. Born into colonial Trinidad in 1922, he emerged in the 1950s, at the forefront of multicultural Britain, acting as an intermediary between the growing Caribbean community, the islands they had left behind, and the often hostile conditions of life in post War Britain. In the process Kitch, as he was affectionally called, single handedly popularised the calypso in Britain.Kitch represents the first biographical study of Aldwyn Roberts, according to calypso lore, christened Lord Kitchener, because of his stature and enthusiasm for the art form. Utilising an innovative, polyvocal style which combines life-writing with poetic prose, the narrative alternates between first person anecdotes by Kitchener’s fellow calypsonians, musicians, lovers and rivals, and lyrically rich fictionalised passages. By focussing equally on Kitchener’s music as on his hitherto undocumented private and political life, Joseph gets to the heart of the man behind the music and the myth, reaching behind the sobriquet, to present a holistic portrait of the calypso icon.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on exhaustive research from interviews and unpublished archival material, John Richardson has produced the long-awaited third volume of the definitive biography, full of original, groundbreaking new insights into Picasso's life and work. His lively and incisive analysis of the work meshes seamlessly with the rich and detailed narrative of this complex and sensual life. The Triumphant Years reveals Picasso at the height of his powers, producing not only the costumes and sets for such Diaghilev Ballets Russes productions as Parade and Tricorne but some of his most important sculpture and paintings. These are tumultuous years, Picasso torn between marital respectability with Olga, the Russian ballerina who was his first wife, and the erotic passion of his mistress, Marie-Therese.This extraordinary biography ends with the completion of a dramatic series of drawings of the crucifixion. From then on the horrors of war would replace any private horrors, leading ultimately to Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica.Trade ReviewThe latest instalment of the finest artistic biography ever written -- Waldemar Januszczak * Sunday Times *No man is better qualified to write the biography of Picasso...he writes with such fluency, simplicity and clarity that his knowledge and illuminating wisdom are very lightly borne... A marvellous book -- Brian Sewell * Evening Standard *Unmissably good -- Tim Martin * 'Christmas Biography Choice' Daily Telegraph *Every page provides some insightful and fascinating information -- William Boyd * 'Books of the Year', Sunday Herald *I love this tumultuous, mercurial, idiosyncratic cavalcade of a book... It is a book that manages to be simultaneously individual and authoritative, and makes one impatient for the next volume -- Philip Hensher * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisNow a Major Feature Length Documentary: 'Cassius X: Becoming Ali’ (Cinema release Spring 2023) Miami, 1963. A young boy from Louisville, Kentucky, is on the path to becoming the greatest sportsman of all time. Cassius Clay is training in the 5th Street Gym for his heavyweight title clash against the formidable Sonny Liston. He is beginning to embrace the ideas and attitudes of Black Power, and firebrand preacher Malcolm X will soon become his spiritual adviser. Thus Cassius Clay will become ‘Cassius X’ as he awaits his induction into the Nation of Islam. Cassius also befriends the legendary soul singer Sam Cooke, falls in love with soul singer Dee Dee Sharp and becomes a remarkable witness to the first days of soul music. As with his award-winning soul trilogy, Stuart Cosgrove’s intensive research and sweeping storytelling shines a new light on how black music lit up the sixties against a backdrop of social and political turmoil – and how Cassius Clay made his remarkable transformation into Muhammad Ali.Trade Review'Cassius X is a delightful ride in a cherry-red Cadillac, with soul music on the radio and a steady hand at the wheel. A thoroughly enjoyable journey' -- Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life'Crisply written, fast-paced, and original, this book surges with the kind of effervescence we have long associated with a young Cassius Clay ... Filled with colourful details, with a learned eye toward the music of the era, Cassius X hits all the right notes' -- Michael Ezra, author of Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon'An exciting trip through the urban worlds of boxing, soul music, and crime, as Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam, becomes Muhammad Ali, and ascends the ranks of boxing to become World Heavyweight Champion during the early 1960s' -- Lewis Erenberg, author of The Rumble in the Jungle'There are many books about Muhammad Ali, but none like Stuart Cosgrove's Cassius X ... The book is a deeply personal look at one of 'The Greatest' public figures of the last one hundred years and is a model of how biographies of African Americans should be written' -- Ray Winbush, author of Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade'Fascinating ... a different take on its subject, like a wayward B-side of a highly familiar tune' * Scotsman *'A vivid, knowing close-up of a crucial year in the life of boxing’s most iconic figure' * Kirkus *'Stuart Cosgrove's deep research and very human storytelling highlights how black music lit up the Sixties against a backdrop of political turmoil - and how Cassius Clay began his remarkable transformation into Muhammad Ali winning the world heavyweight title from scratch three times in the process' * Harrogate Advertiser *'You can almost smell the liniment and sweat and hear the classic songs of Tamla Motown when you start reading Mr Cosgrove’s work Cassius X... a compelling reminder of why he [Muhammad Ali] made such an impression' * Dundee Courier *'An engrossing and revelatory read.. and a great playlist. You do not have to be a fan of boxing or soul music to love this book' -- Val McDermid at Edinburgh International Book Festival'A benediction of a book about the early years of the sporting deity. Cassius X is a unique take – no easy feat when faced with an athlete who has been embalmed in books over the decades' * Sunday Times *'Equivalent to a biopic which portrays the fast-moving 1960s social, political and cultural scene and gives a fascinating insight into a lesser-known part of the legendary champion's life' * Dundee Courier *'A riveting profile of one of the world’s greatest sportsmen and the world he moved in' * Herald *'No ordinary tale of the life of The Greatest. Tells the story of the many social forces that shaped the life of the former world champion' * Press & Journal *'A terrifically fresh insight into sport’s greatest superstar' * The Scotsman, Best Sports Books of 2020 *'Another belter from The Soul Trilogy author... shines a light on how black music lit up politically turbulent 1960s America' * Sunday Post *

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Book SynopsisThis is an accessibly written, illustrated biography of Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), one of the most famous women artists in 18th-century Europe. It presents an overview of her life and work, considering Carriera's miniatures alongside her better-known, larger-scale works.Focusing on interpretation of her paintings in the historical context of her life as a single woman in Venice, the book offers an easy guide through Carriera´s life, the people she met, her clients and her artistic approach. The author's new iconographic analysis of some of Carriera's works reveals that she was an erudite painter, drawing on antiquity as well as the work of Renaissance virtuosos such as Leonardo da Vinci and Paolo Veronese. Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Chapter 1: Venice at the Dawn of the Eighteenth Century and the Beginning of Carriera's Artistic Career; Chapter 2: An Independent Single Female Painter; Chapter 3: Carriera, the First Female Trendsetter in Technique and Style; Chapter 4: Invitations Abroad and Carriera's International Network; Chapter 5: Pastel Painting: Carriera's Greatest Success; Chapter 6: An Exceptional Life Comes to an End; Notes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisConsidered by John Singer Sargent to be the best British draughtsman since the Renaissance, Augustus John was the first of the British ‘Post-Impressionists’. Such was his importance that Virginia Woolf declared in 1921 that by 1908 ‘The age of Augustus John was dawning,’ and Wyndham Lewis would dub the ten years leading up to 1914 ‘the Augustan decade'. Handsome, unconventional and full of brilliant promise and Bohemian spirit, John was the man almost every young British art student wanted to emulate. This book reveals why, telling his extraordinary story from his birth in south Wales in 1878 through to the end of his youth in the closing stages of the First World War. Interweaving his biography are the personalities who surrounded John, and the book looks at their influence on him, and his upon them. They include his fellow students at the Slade School of Art – his sister Gwen John and future wife Ida Nettleship, and his friends William Orpen, Ambrose McEvoy, Spencer Gore and Percy Wyndham Lewis – all of whom would become prominent artists in their own right. This book is a long overdue, new interpretation of this singular figure, who was both at the heart of the British artistic milieu, and yet set apart from its movements and manifestos.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Preface; 1 Wales; 2 The Slade; 3 New Arrivals; 4 Rivals and Lovers; 5 Paris; 6 First Fruits; 7 The Rising Generation; 8 New Friendships; 9 Seeking a Remedy; 10 Gifted and Interested; 11 Men Who Have Failed; 12 Brilliant Destiny; 13 New Beginnings; 14 1907-8: The Realities of Life; 15 The Way Down to the Sea; 16 War to the Palette-Knife; 17 The Influencer; 18 Losing his Way; 19 The War Years; 20 Aftermath; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisKenneth Williams was the stand-out comic actor of his generation. Beloved as the manic star of Carry On films and as a peerless raconteur on TV chat shows, he was also acclaimed for serious stage roles. Born Brilliant will include much previously unseen material from Williams's candid daily journal and also draw on rare in-depth interviews with friends and colleagues. Since the publication of edited extracts from his diaries, much controversy has surrounded Williams's personal and professional lives. This biography traces the complex contradictions that characterised an extraordinary life and presents the first full portrait of a star who was born brilliant.Trade ReviewChristopher Stevens's diligent biography offers illuminating insights into Kenneth Williams's work and inner life. Underpinned by a warm sympathy, Born Brilliant is often revealing and . . . well-written * Sunday Telegraph *The book does something interesting and necessary. There is a danger with any book on Williams of just further nailing down the received wisdom: that he was entirely morbid, socially inadequate and consumed by guilt. What Stevens manages to do, even as he throws out all the examples of The Fear, is retune the accepted facts a little and tell the story not just of the melancholia but also of the happiness * Herald *Christopher Stevens has written a solid, workmanlike, authorised biography of this least solid or workmanlike or authorised of figures * Mail on Sunday *Stevens adeptly captures the mercurial temperament and frequent malice. For all his flaws, however, Williams remains lovable, to his devoted friends and fans, as well as to Stevens' readers * Metro *Stevens has done a grand job of reconciling the public and private Williamses * Daily Telegraph *Williams gets the biography he deserves: impeccably researched, compelling and, despite everything, sympathetic * Scotsman *a portrait far more sympathetic than the ascerbic one conjured by Williams' edited diary extracts in l993 * Independent *Excellent biography * Choice *Stevens has unearthed a great deal of new material * TLS *

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Book SynopsisLife is an ocean and love is a boat, In troubled waters that keeps us afloat ...This lively collection uncovers for the first time how the best Irish love songs came to be. This is for anyone who ever wondered who the 'Galway Girl' was, or if there was a real-life 'Nancy Spain'. Learn the often surprising, sometimes bittersweet, but always absorbing stories of the real women who inspired some of the world's finest love songs.Trade Review'Fascinating insight.' * Books Ireland *'A worthy and recommended book.' * Irish Examiner *Table of Contents1 'Una Bhan' - Tomas Laidir Costello 92 'Danny Boy' - Blind Rory O'Cahan (Ruaidhri DallO Cathain) and Frederick Edward Weatherly 253 'Down by the Salley Gardens' - W. B. Yeats 414 'Gortnamona' - William Percy French 655 'On Raglan Road' - Patrick Kavanagh 816 'Nancy Spain' - Barney Rush 957 'Sarah' - Phil Lynott 1118 'Grace' - Sean and Frank O'Meara 1319 'Past the Point of Rescue' and 'Crusader' -Mick Hanly 16110 'The Voyage' - Johnny Duhan 17911 'After All' - Frank and Walters 19712 'To You I Bestow' - Mundy 20713 'Galway Girl' - Steve Earle 22114 'You Raise Me Up' - Brendan Graham 235

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Book SynopsisThis first and ground-breaking biography of Arthur Jefferson, the father of Stan Laurel (the mastermind behind the legendary comedy partnership of Laurel and Hardy), reveals that he was a major influence on his son, a fine comic actor himself, a successful playwright, and an excellent example of the provincial theatrical lessees who provided Victorians and Edwardians with their main source of entertainment. It describes the ups and downs of his life, family and career and how, in middle age, he had to confront the challenge to the world of intimate, local, live theatre from the emerging global, silent and then sound cinema industry. Ironically, it was the success of films like those of Laurel and Hardy which all but destroyed the provincial theatrical world that Arthur loved.

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Book SynopsisLessons in living from the bestselling and beloved author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGSA brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMAThe woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory' says Maya Angelou, bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS and one of our best-loved writers. Here she writes about family, argues for spirit and grace, insists on the importance of laughter and style and reflects on brutality and crime. She has the courage to say the unfashionable: 'virtue, purity, temperance, goodness, worth or even moderation...we must return them to a vigorous role in our lives', and the wit to call for them with humour. As lessons in living, they are a unique inspiration.'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY 'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISONTrade ReviewShe has the knack of guiding us along the seamier side of life while making us feel refreshed and restored like a terrific gospel blues singer * GUARDIAN *

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Book SynopsisHOMEGROUND: THE KATE BUSH MAGAZINE: ANTHOLOGY ONE: ''WUTHERING HEIGHTS'' TO ''THE SENSUAL WORLD'' HomeGround is a magazine devoted to Kate Bush (born in 1958), a British pop star best-known for hits such as ''Wuthering Heights'', ''Wow'', ''Hounds of Love'' and ''Running Up That Hill''. This book is pure heaven for music fans. The HomeGround anthology includes material inspired by all periods of Kate Bush''s musical progression. It is a book about the reaction to her work and how her unique music has touched the lives of so many people. This is a unique book, a labour of love for hundreds of music fans who have contributed to HomeGround over its thirty-year existence. The book includes an enormous amount of information about Kate Bush, accounts of every release, album, single, pop promo and appearance, as well as memories and accounts of music fandom (such as conventions, meetings, hikes, stage door encounters and video parties). It also includes material on many other pop acts and events. It features poetry, stories, letters, reviews, interviews, memoirs, cartoons, drawings, paintings and photographs. This is the first book of a two volume set, totalling over 1200 pages. The first book covers Kate Bush''s career from ''Wuthering Heights'' to ''The Sensual World'' (from the late 1970s to the late 1980s). The second book runs from ''The Red Shoes'' album to the present day. The first issue of HomeGround appeared in 1982, four years after Kate Bush''s dramatic debut with ''Wuthering Heights''. Starting with an ancient manual typewriter, and a pot of glue paste, the editors mounted articles on recycled backing sheets and added hand-drawn artwork to fill the gaps. The first issue was photocopied, the pages hand-stapled together and twenty-five copies were given away to fans they knew. Only later did they discover the magic of word processing, and desktop publishing. From those beginnings HomeGround became a cornerstone of the ''Kate-speaking world'', the editors going on to organise four official fan events at which Kate Bush and members of her family and band appeared, arrange at Bush''s request a team of fans to be extras in two of her videos and organise informal fan gatherings at Glastonbury and Top Withens, the storm-blown ruin on Haworth Moor. Years before the internet, HomeGround became a place where fans could discuss Bush''s music, and a place where they could publish creative writing and artwork that music inspired. Fully illustrated with hundreds of images, including rare photographs and original artwork. Includes a timeline of Kate Bush''s career, index and a who''s who. ISBN 97818617147945. 648pp. Volume Two of HomeGround, covering Kate Bush''s career from ''The Red Shoes'' to the present day, is also available: ISBN 9781861714817 (Pbk) and ISBN 9781861714824 (Hbk). www.crmoon.com (see for offers on buying both books together). Katebushnews.com - the website of HomeGround, the international Kate Bush magazine.

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Book SynopsisHOMEGROUND: THE KATE BUSH MAGAZINE: ANTHOLOGY TWO: ''THE RED SHOES'' TO ''50 WORDS FOR SNOW''?HomeGround is a magazine devoted to Kate Bush (born in 1958), a British pop star best-known for hits such as ''Wuthering Heights'', ''Wow'', ''Hounds of Love'' and ''Running Up That Hill''. This book is pure heaven for music fans. The HomeGround magazine anthology includes material inspired by all periods of Kate Bush''s musical progression. It is a book about the reaction to her work and how her unique music has touched the lives of so many people. This is a unique book, a labour of love for hundreds of music fans who have contributed to HomeGround over its thirty-year existence. The book includes an enormous amount of information about Kate Bush, accounts of every release, album, single, pop promo and appearance, as well as memories and accounts of music fandom (such as conventions, meetings, hikes, stage door encounters and video parties). It also includes material on many other pop acts and events. It features poetry, stories, letters, reviews, interviews, memoirs, cartoons, drawings, paintings and photographs. This is the second book of a two volume set, totalling over 1200 pages. The second volume covers Kate Bush''s career from ''The Red Shoes'' album to ''50 Words For Snow'' album (from the early 1990s to the present day). The first book runs from the origins of Bush''s career to the album ''The Sensual World''. The first issue of HomeGround appeared in 1982, four years after Kate Bush''s dramatic debut with ''Wuthering Heights''. Starting with an ancient manual typewriter, and a pot of glue paste, the editors mounted articles on recycled backing sheets and added hand-drawn artwork to fill the gaps. The first issue was photocopied, the pages hand-stapled together and twenty-five copies were given away to fans they knew. Only later did they discover the magic of word processing, and desktop publishing. From those beginnings HomeGround became a cornerstone of the ''Kate-speaking world'', the editors going on to organise four official fan events at which Kate Bush and members of her family and band appeared, arrange at Bush''s request a team of fans to be extras in two of her videos and organise informal fan gatherings at Glastonbury and Top Withens, the storm-blown ruin on Haworth Moor. Years before the internet, HomeGround became a place where fans could discuss Bush''s music, and a place where they could publish creative writing and artwork that music inspired. www.crmoon.com. Buy direct from Crescent Moon (at crmoon.com): we are cheaper than online sellers (including Amazon), and more of your money goes to the people who produced these amazing books. We also have offers on buying both books together. Fully illustrated with hundreds of images, including rare photographs and original artwork. Includes a timeline of Kate Bush''s career, index, and a who''s who. ISBN 9781861714817. 568pp. Volume One of HomeGround, covering Kate Bush''s early career, is also available: ISBN 9781861714794 (Pbk) and 9781861714800 (Hbk). Also available in hardback: ISBN 9781861714824. Katebushnews.com - the website of HomeGround, the international Kate Bush magazine.

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Book SynopsisHOMEGROUND: THE KATE BUSH MAGAZINE: ANTHOLOGY TWO: ''THE RED SHOES'' TO ''50 WORDS FOR SNOW''HomeGround is a magazine devoted to Kate Bush (born in 1958), a British pop star best-known for hits such as ''Wuthering Heights'', ''Wow'', ''Hounds of Love'' and ''Running Up That Hill''. This book is pure heaven for music fans. The HomeGround magazine anthology includes material inspired by all periods of Kate Bush''s musical progression. It is a book about the reaction to her work and how her unique music has touched the lives of so many people. This is a unique book, a labour of love for hundreds of music fans who have contributed to HomeGround over its thirty-year existence. The book includes an enormous amount of information about Kate Bush, accounts of every release, album, single, pop promo and appearance, as well as memories and accounts of music fandom (such as conventions, meetings, hikes, stage door encounters and video parties). It also includes material on many other pop acts and events. It features poetry, stories, letters, reviews, interviews, memoirs, cartoons, drawings, paintings and photographs. This is the second book of a two volume set, totalling over 1200 pages. The second volume covers Kate Bush''s career from ''The Red Shoes'' album to ''50 Words For Snow'' album (from the early 1990s to the present day). The first book runs from the origins of Bush''s career to the album ''The Sensual World''. The first issue of HomeGround appeared in 1982, four years after Kate Bush''s dramatic debut with ''Wuthering Heights''. Starting with an ancient manual typewriter, and a pot of glue paste, the editors mounted articles on recycled backing sheets and added hand-drawn artwork to fill the gaps. The first issue was photocopied, the pages hand-stapled together and twenty-five copies were given away to fans they knew. Only later did they discover the magic of word processing, and desktop publishing. From those beginnings HomeGround became a cornerstone of the ''Kate-speaking world'', the editors going on to organise four official fan events at which Kate Bush and members of her family and band appeared, arrange at Bush''s request a team of fans to be extras in two of her videos and organise informal fan gatherings at Glastonbury and Top Withens, the storm-blown ruin on Haworth Moor. Years before the internet, HomeGround became a place where fans could discuss Bush''s music, and a place where they could publish creative writing and artwork that music inspired. www.crmoon.com. Buy direct from Crescent Moon (at crmoon.com): we are cheaper than online sellers (including Amazon), and more of your money goes to the people who produced these amazing books. We also have offers on buying both books together. Fully illustrated with hundreds of images, including rare photographs and original artwork. Includes a timeline of Kate Bush''s career, index and a who''s who. ISBN 97818617144824. 568pp. Volume One of HomeGround, covering Kate Bush''s early career, is also available: ISBN 9781861714794 (Pbk) and 9781861714800 (Hbk). Also available in paperback: ISBN 9781861714817. Katebushnews.com - the website of HomeGround, the international Kate Bush magazine.

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Book SynopsisAcknowledged as one of the major sculptors and avant-garde artists of the twentieth century, Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) also remained one of the most elusive. His mysterious nature was not only due to his upbringing in Romania - which, at the time, was still regarded by much of Europe as a backward country haunted by vampires and werewolves - but also because Brancusi was aware that myth and an 'aura of otherness' appealed to the public. This self-mythology is embodied in his white atelier in Montparnasse, Paris. In "Constantin Brancusi", Sanda Miller looks beyond the mythology of the artist to show us Constantin the Romanian student, as well as Brancusi the celebrated artist. Using new material, including private correspondence from Brancusi's archive in Paris, works from Romania, and Brancusi's own photos of his studio, the author weaves together and interprets a wealth of information, bringing to life his early years in Romania, his move to Paris and his years at his studio. She relates how his art scandalized the Paris salon, yet also explores how his work connects with the folk art of his homeland. She also provides colourful evocations of Brancusi's relationships with colleagues, dealers, friends and lovers. An innovative reassessment of Brancusi's life and work, Sanda Miller's perceptive book allows Brancusi to take his rightful place among the most important of the intellectual personalities who shaped twentieth-century modernism.Trade Review'Sanda Miller has been working on Constantin Brancusi since the 1970s, and her latest contribution to the literature on one of the twentieth-century's greatest sculptors is a detailed and well-researched biography. A new body of archival material became available to Brancusi scholars in 2001 ... Such major gifts to art historians require careful unpacking, and Miller has done an excellent job of digging deeply and thoroughly into hundreds of documents and photographs. The resultant book is centred on primary source material, dispelling long-held myths surrounding Brancusi and attaining perhaps as authentic a portrayal of his life and work as will ever be possible.' - Slavonic and East European ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Hobita: Brancusi's Childhood 2 Craiova: Apprenticeship, l894-98 3 Bucharest: Academy of Fine Arts, l898-l902 4 Paris 5 Impasse Ronsin: Brancusi 'at Home' 6 Montparnasse: Brancusi and Friends 7 Tirgu-Jiu 8 Last Works, Last Friends, Legacy References Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisChasing Shadows is the story of an obsessed fan's one-man quest to find the original Deep Purple singer Rod Evans. Evans dropped off the radar in 1980 following a legal case that buried him with a debt in excess of half a million dollars. Just like the mysteries that surrounded Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and the Manic Street Preachers' Richie Edwards, nobody - literally nobody - has any idea where he is or what he has been doing. So Jarvis set himself a challenge: Find Rod Evans. Part memoir, part piece of musical history, part piece of musical mystery. In this personal quest the author relays his encounters with fellow original Deep Purple member Nick Simper and as an obsessive fan, all that that entails. Rod Evans remains the pivot throughout the book and when Deep Purple finally get accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame it sets the author off to the Induction Ceremony in New York where he may or may not find the Holy Grail he has sought for several years. It is also about friendship and how the people we meet influence us and share the journeys on which we embark. It is a picaresque tale, sometimes comic, sometimes moving, sometimes laced with fantasy, but it is one in which everyone - or, at any rate, everyone above a certain age - will find somewhat familiar.

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Book SynopsisEvelyn Dove embraced the worlds of jazz, musical theatre and, most importantly, cabaret, in a career spanning five decades from the 1920s through to the 1960s. A black British diva with movie star looks, she captivated audiences and admirers around the world, enjoying the same appeal as the 'Forces Sweetheart' Vera Lynn throughout the Second World War.Refusing to be constrained by her race or middle-class West African and English backgrounds, she would perform for infamous Russian leader, Joseph Stalin; become a regular vocalist for the BBC and a celebrated performer across continental Europe, India and the US.At the height of her fame in the 1930s, she worked with the pioneers of black British theatre, replacing Josephine Baker as the star attraction in a revue at the Casino de Paris and scandalizing her family by appearing on stage semi-nude.This is a celebration of an extraordinary career punctuated with vertiginous highs and profound lows, and places Dove in historical context with artists of her time, such as Adelaide Hall, Dame Cleo Laine and Dame Shirley Bassey.

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Book SynopsisIn 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart leaves Salzburg for Paris. The French capital promises to liberate the 22-year-old from the suffocating grip of his father, and from a city that is unable to accommodate his genius. But there is no grand entrance for the former child prodigy. When Mozart arrives in Paris, he is cash-strapped, unknown and his French is poor. His mentor, the critic Baron von Grimm, introduces him to a number of Parisian nobles. But recognition is hard-won, and at times the French court appears indifferent to Mozart's talents and disapproving of his spontaneity. Tracing the composer’s six-month stay in the city of lights, Mozart in Paris dramatizes the confrontation between a sparkle-eyed genius and mundane reality. Frantz Duchazeau spotlights a frustrating yet formative period of the composer’s life — and in doing so creates a living, breathing portrait of a man whose music, as Einstein famously said, “was so pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to be discovered by the master.”

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Book SynopsisMichael Coveney has been writing theatrical obituaries alongside reviews for several decades and makes a telling, sometimes surprising, selection of the best performers of our time, from Laurence Olivier to Alan Rickman, Peggy Ashcroft to Helen McCrory, Richard Briers to Ken Dodd. Most of these obits appeared in the Guardian, several in the Observer, the Financial Times and the Evening Standard. The fifty articles are arranged in chronological order of each actor’s demise and constitute a vivid history of postwar theatre through the lives of the actors, ‘the abstract and brief chronicles of the time’ as Hamlet called them. There are happy/sad juxtapositions of shooting stars Robert Stephens and Alan Bates; tragic niece and aunt, Natasha Richardson and Lynn Redgrave; classical queens Diana Rigg and Barbara Jefford; and versatile showtime hoofers Una Stubbs and Lionel Blair.Trade Review'Great idea, great cover, great writing. The Final Curtain is a book we need.' Simon Callow

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Book SynopsisSir Edward ‘Eddie’ Marsh was an ornament of early twentieth-century society; a respected civil servant, polymath and scholar who led a remarkable life. Always at the heart of the establishment, he was Winston Churchill’s longest serving Private Secretary and close friend. Marsh harboured a passion for young men - poets, painters and actors - to whom he devoted his money, time and connections. His numerous protégés included luminaries such as Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, and Ivor Novello to name but a few. Preferring to work behind the scenes, Marsh also edited the work of several acclaimed writers; Winston Churchill, Somerset Maugham, Siegfried Sassoon and many others owe a debt to Marsh whose hand burnished their work. Sharon Mather's biography of Edward Marsh is set against the backdrop of the extraordinary events of the first half of the twentieth century, and is seen through the prism of his illustrious friendships.

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Book SynopsisImagine a world with no John Lennon. Born 9 October 1940 in Liverpool, John Lennon was a walking, talking, quote machine. Every time he opened his mouth, genius fell out. To celebrate this simple, glorious truth, The Little Book of John Lennon is here to remind you what a legend sounds like. From his days down in the dumps as a Liverpudlian scamp to his tenure in the world's greatest beat combo to his post-Beatles bed-ins and living for peace, love and understanding, The Little Book of John Lennon speaks the truth as Lennon himself lived it. Imagine a world with no John Lennon - it's easy if you try. But, why in the world would you want to? This is John Lennon at his best, and in his own words. 'If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.' John talking about materialism and peace. As seen on Independent.co.uk, December 8, 2016, by Clarisse Loughrey. 'We live in a world we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.' John talking about the 1970s and the Vietnam War. As seen on Irish Post, October 2009, by Jack Beresford. 'I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.' John discussing his legacy while being interviewed on RKO Radio, December 8, 1980 (the day he was murdered). As seen on Beatles Archive.net, December 21, 2013. Table of ContentsThe Quarry Man • The Ballad of John and Yoko • All You Need is Lennon • Power to the People • Hey John • Working Class Hero.

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Book SynopsisFilm star. Icon. Agitator. Martyr. Paul Robeson was a twentieth-century icon; the most famous African-American of his time. The son of a former slave, he found worldwide fame as a performer, travelling from Hollywood to the West End, and even to communist Russia. A champion of social justice and equality, he would go on to lose everything for the sake of his principles. Here, Jeff Sparrow traces Robeson’s remarkable life. Part travelogue, part biography, this is a story of political ardour, heritage, and trauma — a luminous portrait of a man and an urgent reflection on the politics that define us now. Trade Review‘Sparrow shows how this admittedly splendid actor, this marvelous singer, this charismatic speaker, had somehow evolved into something more: he had for many people become the embodiment of the global longing for a better world, a juster dispensation … Sparrow has made perfect and haunting sense of him.’ * New York Review of Books *‘In a chronologically methodical and delightfully insightful approach that might best be described as “bio-tourism”, Australian author, journalist, and broadcaster Sparrow tells the story of preternaturally gifted Paul Robeson … [A]n excellent and perhaps timely reboot of Robeson’s singularly incredible life, especially as its trajectory now intersects with contemporary racial issues.’ * Library Journal *‘Written with an exhilarating combination of insight and passion … A necessary book. A social movement that calls itself “Black Lives Matter” exists because those lives are being treated as if they don't. Sparrow knows that when he writes of the past, “If you believed in nothing, you’d fall for anything”, he is also writing about now.’ * Anna Funder, author of Stasiland *‘This is an inspiring biography of a really remarkable human being.’ -- Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream‘Brilliantly told by Jeff Sparrow, Paul Robeson's story is compelling and important. No Way But This is a challenge to history and a reminder of what unites us.’ -- Owen Jones, Guardian columnist and author of The Establishment‘Jeff Sparrow is the latest biographer to tackle this riveting subject and he ably demonstrates how journalistic method can contribute to historical understanding.’ * TLS *‘Urgent and compelling … A mix of essay, journalism, history and biography [that is] engaging, original and insightful … Fascinating, instructive and full of astute observations on race and politics, No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson will appeal to readers passionate about social justice and the history of 20th-century political movements.’ STARRED REVIEW * Books+Publishing *‘An amazing story I didn't even know I didn't know. Jeff pulls us through the grubby terrain of race, Jesus, prison, and fascism.’ -- John Safran, author of Murder in Mississippi‘With sensitive inquisition; fierce curiosity; razor-sharp observation; crisp, engaging prose; and a fondness and respect for his subject that fairly sings, Sparrow once again proves himself one of the finest nonfiction writers we have.’ -- Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of The Hate Race‘Part journalist, part historian, Jeff Sparrow writes with loving discernment about a remarkable man and the forces that shaped his unmistakable voice. [This is] a gripping story of courage and commitment, told by one of our finest chroniclers of the human capacity for tenderness amid the squalor. Sparrow takes us on a global journey, revealing that beyond an old man and a river, there lies a deep valley of hatred and hope, sadness and solidarity.’ -- Claire Wright, Stella Prize-winning author of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka‘Jeff Sparrow's No Way But This is a major addition to what we know of, and how we may know, this 20th-century giant … It's impossible to do justice in a brief space to such a life of commitment — or to suggest just what a compelling narrative Sparrow has made of it. He has aptly brought this giant to the attention of later generations.’ * Sydney Morning Herald *‘Paul Robeson was truly a giant of a man, in physical stature, courage, intellect, and creative endeavour. With this intimate and engaging portrait, we are able to gain an invaluable insight into a major political and artistic talent of the twentieth century. Ours is a time requiring inspiration, affiliation, and solidarity. Paul Robeson surely provides the inspiration we desperately need.’ -- Tony Birch, author of Blood and Ghost River‘A great book about a fascinating man. Read it and be inspired!’ -- Srdja Popovic, author of Blueprint for Revolution‘Both moving and illuminating … It is timely that in an era when there are more African-American men in jail or on parole in the United States than there were men in bondage at the height of slavery and when the Black Lives Matter movement is gathering momentum that there is a book to remind us about this astonishing individual and the political climate in which he used his popular voice to highlight systemic inequality.’ * Readings *‘An illuminating look at the life of a frankly remarkable man.’ FIVE BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ THIS MONTH * The AU Review *‘Book of the week … [A] conscientious and often painful biography.’ * Daily Mail *‘Sparrow has eloquently portrayed Robeson as a giant of a man who was prepared to kill off his career for his political beliefs. He emphasises that past struggles should inform today; we need not just inspiration to act but affiliation to organise and solidarity to withstand.’ * Morning Star Online *‘Remarkable … It revives Robeson as a model of integrity and bravery — someone who, despite the precarity of his social position, risked his life and career for the ideas of workers' rights, black liberation, anti-colonialism and international socialism. As Robeson's story unfolds, the ghosts of past struggles unite with those who fight for political emancipation around the world today. By naming and connecting these diverse groups, Sparrow opens a space for a new public to be formed. Robeson, with his integrity, struggles and flaws, provides a powerful model for the kinds of political action we so desperately need.’ * Sydney Review of Books *‘Told sensitively and often movingly by a writer awake to the nuances of the political and social contexts in which Robeson moved, this is a story that reverberates today, full of tragedy but also exhilaration and promise. It is the story we need to hear.’ * Overland *‘Sparrow's lively portrait should restore a little of the fame the great man deserves.’ * Weekend Herald (Auckland) *‘Robeson’s character, art, principled politics and legacy of extraordinary courage all come vividly to life in No Way But This. There are many worthy books about the life of Paul Robeson, but this is one not to be missed.’ * Red Flag *‘ … a splendid account of this fabulous figure … This is an intriguing life, beautifully realised by a fine writer, and should be widely read and appreciated.’ * The Miner *‘A thoughtful, sensitive and respectful examination of the life and work of Paul Robeson … More than the biography of one remarkable man, the book is a testament to Robeson's conviction that despite it all, there was no way but to struggle for a better world.’ * Green Left Weekly *‘The book gripped me. I read excerpts to The Spouse over breakfast; I neglected the ironing, forgot to water the vegetable patch … Now that’s a book well worth reading!’ * ANZ LitLovers *‘An entertaining, informative and important book.’ -- Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon‘Absolutely wonderful.’ -- Simon Callow‘Sparrow's account not only soars, it sings.’ * Sight and Sound *‘This passionate biography is testament to a figure who deserves to be better remembered.’ * Esquire, The Big Book Awards *‘[W]ritten with deep admiration for its subject.’ -- Nadifa Mohamed * The Guardian *‘[A] pleasing, engaging mix of biography, social history, in-the-footsteps research, and personal reflection … A lucid, thought-provoking tribute to Robeson by an author determined to stand where Robeson stood and imagine what he thought.’ * Kirkus *‘Sparrow has made a worthy effort, joining other recent work, including Jordan Goodman’s Paul Robeson: A Watched Man and Gerald Horne’s Paul Robeson: the Artist as Revolutionary. Each is worth reading.’ * Paul Buhle *‘Sparrow’s book is a very effective and compelling way of introducing Robeson to readers not so interested in conventional biographies.’ -- Tayo Aluko * Morning Star *

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Book SynopsisThe Songs The Beatles Gave Away' was inspired by the 2009 BBC Radio 2 documentary of the same name on which Colin worked with/for Bob Harris and his wife, Trudie Myerscough-Harris. For his book, Bob and Trudie have kindly given Colin permission to access the interviews they conducted in 2008/9 with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Cilla Black, Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax, Billy Hatton and others. Previously only small extracts from these exclusive interviews have ever been available but now, for the first time, these gems are accessed in full. Among the last interviews they gave, Sir George and Cilla spoke candidly about their work and experiences. To read their words is a moving reminder not only of their individual talents but of a period in recent musical history, the impact of which, still resonates to this day. Since making the original Radio 2 documentary Colin has been able to speak to artists who did not contribute directly to the programme such as Billy J. Kramer, Peter Asher, Megan Davies of The Applejacks and John Clay who played with the Black Dyke Mills Brass Band in 1968 when Paul McCartney visited Saltaire, in Yorkshire, to record 'Thingumybob', an instrumental tune, he had written especially for a brass band to play. For extra background detail, and to further contextualise the songwriting of John, Paul and George, Colin has unearthed extensive interviews he conducted with Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Vormann before he became custodian of the Lennon house in Liverpool in 2004. He has also spoken with eye-witness, and former member of the Plastic Ono Band, Alan White who played on many Apple recording sessions. 'The Songs The Beatles Gave Away' is illustrated with photographs of records culled from Colin's private collection of original 45rpm vinyl singles, together with photographs kindly donated to the project by his friends, some of his own personal photographs as well as many promotional photographs from the period. While encompassing the origins of the Beatles as a group and the emergence of John, Paul, and George as composers, the central focus of 'The Songs The Beatles Gave Away' is on tunes John, Paul and George wrote for other artistes rather than just for The Beatles themselves. As such the stories featured here are not about 'covers' of songs the Beatles had already released. It is about songs The Beatles did not release commercially or even record at all during the active lifetime of the group. Such 'giveaways' were unique and each song and its singer are discussed in detail and side stories and background explored. This is the first time a book focusing on this aspect of The Beatles' legacy has been attempted.

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Book SynopsisThe Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) achieved world fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. In this detailed biography, Rudiger Goerner masterfully depicts the multifaceted artist's life and long career. He traces Kokoschka's path from being the bugbear of the bourgeoisie and a 'hunger artist' to becoming a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who went on to shape the European art scene of the 20th century and beyond. The great painter's works as a playwright, essayist and poet bear witness to his remarkable literary quality. Music played a central role in his work, and his passion for teaching led him to establish in 1953 the School of Seeing, an unconventional art school conceived by Kokoschka as an attempt to revive humanist ideals in the horrific aftermath of war. The life and work of Oskar Kokoschka are a reaction against the monochrome monotony of existence; Goerner's biography portrays the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity.Trade Review'Goerner narrates [...] in a compelling way' - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; 'With appropriately rhapsodic descriptions, Goerner shows how incredibly [...] worldly this petty bourgeois from Poechlarn has been' - Die Welt; ‘An unconventional but long-awaited approach to Kokoschka’s rich oeuvre. Rüdiger Görner does not restrict his considerations to the painter and his formal characteristics but rather sets Kokoschka’s singular character against a social, literary and political background in a century of European turmoil. [...] Görner sheds light on how contemporaries such as Thomas Mann and Karl Kraus viewed Kokoschka’s oeuvre. This new biography is a holistic reflection on Kokoschka as a person, with his paintings and writings, his enemies and lovers, his agonies and his hopes’ Catherine Hug Kunsthaus Zürichs; ‘Rüidger Görner does not separate Kokoschka’s art from his life. The artist was driven, always trying to cross boundaries, be they moral, political or social. The veracity of his art was the result of these frictions never being hidden. Görner works along the same principles, creating a convincing book and presenting the entire Oskar Kokoschka, perhaps for the first time, and leaves the reader with an unforgettable impression’ Johann Konrad Eberlein, former director of the Institute of Art History at University of GrazTable of ContentsThe Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka achieved world fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. In this first English-language biography, Ru¨diger Görner depicts the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity. He traces Kokoschka’s path from bête noire of the bourgeoisie and a so-called ‘hunger artist’ to a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who played a major role in shaping the European art scene of the twentieth century and whose relevance is undiminished to this day. Kokoschka’s achievements as a playwright, essayist and poet bear witness to his remarkable literary talent. Music, too, played a central role in his work, and his passion for teaching led him to establish in 1953 the School of Seeing, an unconventional art school conceived to revive humanist ideals in the horrific aftermath of war.

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Book SynopsisLenny Kravitz has been at the top of the music world for over 30 years, showing no signs of slowing down. A multi instrumentalist, songwriter, actor, and record producer his signature retro sound has incorporated all of the unique style's of the very best in music history, rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop, folk, and ballads. Lenny Kravitz more than any other musician has seamlessly blended these styles into his own, creating a musical fusion, a melting pot of past influences that he continues to efficiently MASTER and PRODUCE with every album. A multiple Grammy award winner Lenny won the Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category. He also set the record for the most consecutive wins by a male. He has been nominated for and won numerous other awards ranging from American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, Brit Awards, and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. He has achieved sales in excess of 40 million records and counting and continues to create UNIQUE albums in his own sound, a sound created and nurtured over 3 decades developing 11 studio albums producing hits all over the world. He has written and produced alongside Mick Jagger, Madonna,Michael Jackson, Prince and many others. Lenny Kravitz stands as one of only a handful of individual Rock Stars that CONTINUOUSLY tourS with sell out concerts in Arenas all over the world. A truly global rock star with a talent for writing, producing and performing that is extremely rare in modern day music. THIS book examines his rise to fame and his constant successes', his albums, his tour's and his incredible musical ability. James Court brings the second book in the series following on from Prince The Life The Genius The Legend in 2018. Lenny Kravitz, The Life, The Genius, The Legend leaves no stone unturned and follows the life of this extraordinary Rock Star who first came to our attention in 1989 and has remained on the Music scene, producing quality songs and albums ever since. Through his own individual talent Lenny Kravitz has risen to become one of the most esteemed, admired, illustrious and respected Musicians in Rock music over the past 30 years. The Book highlights and reveals every part of this unique musical Genius, his rise to the top of Rock and Roll prominence, his life within music, his countless achievements on and off the stage, and ultimately, his legend.

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Book Synopsis"Music is part of my oxygen, Without it I would dry up" Mention the name Carly Simon to some people and they will probably think of one song in particular, maybe two or three at a push, while others may remember her for being one half of the "golden couple" of the Seventies' pop landscape. But this is a little unjust for an artist whose career has spanned over fifty years and counting, and during that time has amassed a catalog of over thirty groundbreaking albums and scores of hit singles; has composed music for theatre, movies and television; has written not only an opera, but a series of acclaimed children's books, and two best-selling memoirs. And we should not forget she is also the recipient of two Grammys, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar, as well as having countless honours bestowed on her for her accomplishments. Carly Simon is truly a musical phenomenon. Few female artists have achieved such a magnificent body of work; even fewer have been involved in so many facets of the music business; and no one has written so candidly to create an audio diary for the whole world to hear. From the moment her mother sang lullabies to her, that musical journey takes you from a childhood fraught with anxieties and phobias, having to conquer discrimination, stage fright, and life-threatening illness, to becoming one of the most glamorous, photographed, interviewed, and successful female artists of her generation. Not bad for a little girl who once saw herself as an ugly "left-over sister." But this is Carly Simon, and nobody has done it better.

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Book SynopsisThe great singer, Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, USA on 9 April 1898. His father, William was a Presbyterian minister and a former slave; his mother, Maria was also descended from slaves. For Robeson as an African-American, the 'American Dream' was a nightmare. At Rutgers College he was subjected to deliberate violence on the football field; his concerts were disrupted by the Ku Klux Klan; he was hounded by the government on account of his communist sympathies. And yet, it is difficult to think of any human being in the whole of history who was more multi-talented. At Rutgers he was admitted to the very highest academic societies: he subsequently played football in the newly-created NFL; he became acquainted with more than 40 languages, and played the piano. He played 'Othello' at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, and 'Joe' in the film, Show Boat. Yet it was his voice, arguably the finest bass baritone ever to be possessed by a human being, and the message contained in his songs and speeches that echoed right around the world. Here was a message of hope for the poor and underprivileged everywhere, of whatever colour or creed. They too could bring down the 'Walls of Jericho'; gain access to the 'Promised Land'; and finally, be carried to Heaven on a 'Sweet Chariot'! As an author, the challenge for me was to see if I could make contact with any of Paul's descendants and any descendants of his slave owner, who might have unique information about the Robeson family, and to find out where exactly his father, William and mother, Maria had been enslaved. The search was a fruitful one; beyond my wildest dreams, as the reader will discover!Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Author's Note: Some Definitions and Preferences Preface: The Author's First Introduction to Paul Robeson 1 Paul Robeson (born 9 April 1898): A Background of Slavery 2 Paul's Father, William Drew Robeson 3 Paul's Mother, Maria Louisa and her Origins 4 The Reverend William Drew Robeson is Ousted from his Post 5 The Tragic Death of Paul's mother, Maria Louisa 6 Paul's Relationship with his Father 7 Princeton, New Jersey (April 1898-1907) 8 Westfield, New Jersey (1907-1910): Somerville, New Jersey (1910-1915) 9 Paul's Siblings 10 Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1915-1917) 11 Harlem: Columbia University, New York City (1919-1923): Marriage to Eslanda (1921) 12 Eslanda's Background 13 The Theatre and Concerts: Paul junior is Born (2 November 1927) 14 How Eslanda Helped Her Husband, Paul 15 Paul's Alleged Faults 16 London (1928-1939) 17 Eslanda's Visit to Africa (1936) 18 Paul's Attitude to Colonialism 19 Return to the USA (1939) 20 The Paris Peace Conference (20-24 April 1949): Jackie Robinson 21 Further Strivings (1949-1953) 22 Eslanda Testifies to the HUAC (7 July 1953) 23 Paul Testifies to the HUAC (12 June 1956) 24 1956-1958 25 Wales: A Welcome in the Valleys for Paul (1957 and 1958) 26 Paul Returns to Czechoslovakia (1959) 27 1961-1976 28 Was Paul Racist? 29 Paul's Forebears: Testimony of the Family 30 Paul's Grandfather Benjamin who was Held in Slavery 31 Paul's Grandmother Sabra who was Held in Slavery 32 Temperance Congleton: A Link with the Robersons 33 The Geographical Proximity of the Roberson and the Congleton Families 34 From what Region of Africa did Benjamin and Sabra's Forebears Originate? 35 How and Where did Benjamin and Sabra First Meet? 36 Oak Grove Church, Perkins, Pitt County, North Carolina: Another Congleton/Roberson Connection 37 Benjamin as a Slave for Hire 38 The Birth of William Drew, Ezekiel, and Margaret 39 The Identity of the Slave Owner of Sabra and her family 40 More About George Outlaw Roberson 41 The Escape of William Drew, Ezekiel, and Margaret 42 How did William Drew, Ezekiel, and Margaret Effect their Escape? The 'Underground Railroad' 43 The American Civil War (12 April 1861 to 9 May 1865): The Contribution made by Blacks 44 What Became of Ezekiel and Margaret? 45 What Became of Paul's Father, William Drew Robeson 46 Were Slave Owners Universally Cruel? 47 How Paul's Songs Resonated Throughout the World 48 Paul's Final Years: Charlotte Turner Bell 49 Paul's Religious Beliefs 50 Epilogue Appendix 1 Some of Paul's Lifetime Awards and Recognitions Appendix 2 The Manilla Appendix 3 George Washington's Personal Standard Appendix 4 Evolution of the 'Stars and Stripes' Appendix 5 The Paul Robeson House & Museum, 4951 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Appendix 6 A Church in Dorset and its Connection with the 'Stars and Stripes'. Appendix 7 Tammy Roberson James, Robersonville, North Carolina, USA, 6 January 2021 Appendix 8 Stephen A. Bess, Rockville, Maryland, USA, 9 January 2021

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