Biography: arts and entertainment Books

Book SynopsisUnquestionably one of the most popular composers of classical music, Sergei Rachmaninoff has not always been so admired by critics. Detractors have long perceived Rachmaninoff as part of an outdated Romantic tradition from a bygone Russian world, aloof from the modernist experimentation of more innovative contemporaries such as Igor Stravinsky. In this new assessment Rebecca Mitchell re-situates Rachmaninoff in the context of his time, bringing together the composer and his music within the remarkably dynamic era in which he lived and worked. Both in Russia and later in America, Rachmaninoff and his music were profoundly modern expressions of life in tune with an uncertain world. This concise yet comprehensive biography will interest general readers as well as those more familiar with this giant of Russian classical music.

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Book SynopsisIn 1976 the British band Throbbing Gristle emerged from the radical arts collective COUM Transmissions through core members Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, joined by Hipgnosis photographer Peter Christopherson and electronics specialist Chris Carter. Though having performed previously in more low-key arts environments, their major launch coincided with the COUM retrospective exhibition Prostitution at London’s ICA gallery, showcasing and contextualising an array of challenging objects from COUM’s various actions in performance art and pornography. In a deliberately curated strategy inviting press, civic and arts dignitaries, extravagant followers of the nascent punk scene and music journalists, the band created an instant controversy and media panic that tapped into the restrictive climate and encroaching conservatism of late 1970s Britain. Any opportunities that were being explored by a formative punk ethos and movement around sex, censorship and transgression were amplified and exposed by Throbbing Gristle and Prostitution. An outraged Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn took the bait and called the ensemble the ‘wreckers of civilisation’, providing the suitable newspaper headline that would be followed a month later by ‘the filth and the fury’ as the Sex Pistols uttered strong profanities on live television. The switch from COUM to Throbbing Gristle encompassed a primary mode of expression in making music as opposed to art, to further coincide with the energy of the nascent punk scene. The band quickly developed a radically deviant and challenging reputation through pushing the punk format past its strictures in terms of lyrical themes, amateurism, and considerations of what constitutes music. Through a handful or record releases on their own label Industrial Records, and a sporadic string of live performances, the band nurtured a strong and devoted following including key journalists and fanzine editors of the punk and post-punk scenes such as Jon Savage and Sandy Robertson. The band’s style of exploring harsh pre-recorded sounds, samples of disconcerting narrative and conversation, and feeding all sounds through messy electronic processing devices gave rise to the title industrial music. This was further buttressed by performing a strictly timed set of one hour, and adopting a non-rockstar mode by appearing disinterested and preoccupied with electronic devices. Having given a name and impetus to the industrial music scene, many of their followers and fans formed bands in later years. Drawing on works such as Andy Bennett’s When the Lights Went Out, this book looks at late 1970s Britain, before, during and immediately after the Winter of Discontent, to situate the activism of Throbbing Gristle in this time. It explores how the band worked in and against the time, and how they worked in and against punk as punk worked in and against the time and place. Punk acts as a mediating factor and nuisance value, as Throbbing Gristle emerged with punk in late 1976, seemingly grappled with it through 1977, and then went on to create and eventually criticise a number of post-punk scenes that had flourished around 1979. Trowell narrates the story through a series of live performances, as this is a point where Throbbing Gristle interact with the various city-scenes around England during their original period of operation (1975-1981). The band reflected (and incorporated into their live music) key tropes form the time, both ‘mainstream’ and fringe (subcultural, avant-garde art, counter-culture, taboo subjects, extremes) such that Throbbing Gristle events had an impact and affect, and Trowell traces these as a series of impressions and reverberations amongst fans who went on to do their own music and projects. Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. DISPLACEMENTS 2. ORIGINAL SINNERS – TOWARDS PROSTITUTION 3. IN AND AGAINST PUNK – 1977 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS 4. ANTI-GIG – ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, 3 MARCH 1978 5. IN THE MACHINE – WAKEFIELD COLLEGE, 1 JULY 1978 6. ANACHRONY IN THE UK – DERBY AJANTA THEATRE, 12 APRIL 1979 7. RESTLESSNESS – SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY, 10 JUNE 1980 8. ENDGAMES/AFTERLIVES REFERENCES INDEX

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Book SynopsisThe most successful Bond of all time. One of the most stylish men in Britain. A United Nations ambassador. Skydiving with the Queen herself. Is there anything Daniel Craig can't do? With the release of No Time to Die, Craig will appear for the fifth time as James Bond. The public and the critics have been united in their praise for Craig in the most-pressurised role there is in global film. However, there has been much more to Craig over the years than just Bond. Roles in Layer Cake, Knives Out and the movie adaptation of Stieg Larssons's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have met with acclaim, and shown breadth and charisma beyond being 007. In this biography, author Sarah Marshall explores the road to success for one of Britain's finest actors - from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama his status as a global icon. A must for any fan, this biography examines not just the star gracing billboards and magazines covers, but also the character of the man behind the famous blue eyes.

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Book SynopsisFrom Sunday Times bestselling author Lesley-Ann JonesOn 12 July 1962, the Rollin' Stones performed their first-ever gig at London's Marquee jazz club. Down the line, a 'g' was added, a spark was lit and their destiny was sealed. No going back.These five white British kids set out to play the music of black America. They honed a style that bled bluesy undertones into dark insinuations of women, sex and drugs. Denounced as 'corruptors of youth' and 'messengers of the devil', they created some of the most thrilling music ever recorded. Now, their sound and attitude seem louder and more influential than ever. Elvis is dead and the Beatles are over, but Jagger and Richards bestride the world. The Stones may be gathering moss, but on they roll. Yet how did the ultimate anti-establishment misfits become the global brand we know today? Who were the casualties, and what are the forgotten legacies? Can the artist ever be truly divisible from the art? Lesley-Ann Jones's new history tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut years and beyond into rock's ongoing reckoning . . . where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have always rebelled. Good, bad and often ugly, here are the Rolling Stones as never before.

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Book SynopsisGrazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a composer with an individual, expressive style. She was also an excellent violinist, a very fine pianist, and a talented author. She studied composition at the Conservatory in Warsaw with Kazimierz Sikorski, violin with Jozef Jarzebski and piano with Jozef Turczynski. Graduating in 1932, she travelled to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, later returning there to work with Carl Flesch. Her compositional output covered many genres, from ballets to songs and choral works, but also ranging from symphonies, concerti, and chamber works to pieces for solo piano. In 1936 she became principal violinist in the Polish Radio Orchestra. She then toured Europe as a soloist in the two years leading up to World War II, later resuming her career as a concert violinist and pianist after the war. For many years, Grazyna Bacewicz held the post of Vice-President of the Union of Polish Composers. She also served as a judge in many prestigious international music competitions. Strong and sensitive, and exceptionally family oriented, Grazyna Bacewicz was also blessed with unusual charm, phenomenal energy and huge creative potential. Grazyna Bacewicz became world famous and won numerous prizes for her compositions, which were regularly performed by the best musicians, and picked up for publication. She received enthusiastic reviews from music critics, among them Stefan Kisielewski, who noted the ''passionate ferocity'' of her playing and described her concerto for string orchestra as ''a rare piece of healthy and tasty music''. This biographical story, based on letters and other family documents, has been brought to us first hand by the composer''s grand-daughter, the writer Joanna Sendlak.

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Book SynopsisRay Brown: His Life and Music is the first full-length biography of Ray Brown, one of the most outstanding practitioners of bass playing in jazz music. Brown''s career spans the most popular and creative eras of jazz, from 1940 to the dawn of the 21st century. During his early professional career, Ray Brown first toured with territory bands, and by 1946, he was hired by Dizzy Gillespie to play in his small group and big band. At this time, Brown became the first call New York bassist to accompany other bop musicians like Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. He also served as the bassist with Norman Granz''s Jazz at the Philharmonic and frequently recorded with an impressive stable of jazz musicians. In 1947 Ray Brown married legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald and soon divided his time by working as the leader of Fitzgerald''s trio while playing with Gillespie, Jazz at the Philharmonic, and as a guest accompanist. After first playing together at Carnegie Hall in 1949, Ray Brown began regularly working with Canadian piano sensation Oscar Peterson until 1965. The Peterson Trio would become one of the most lucrative acts in jazz history. After leaving Peterson, Ray Brown worked as a Los Angeles studio musician and played on numerous commercial recordings but never abandoned swing-based jazz. During these years, he also became involved as a manager, promoter, and teacher. Throughout the mid-1970s until he died in 2002, Ray Brown remained one of the most excellent practitioners of mainstream jazz during a time when some elements of the music moved far away from this style. With so many jazz musicians from his generation succumbing to drugs and tragedy, Ray Brown''s longevity and professionalism are a testament to his talents, intelligence, and professionalism.

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Book Synopsis"The highlights of my extraordinary journey with Mr Clarkson included pizza with Harry and Wills; dancing with Mick Jagger on the private island of Mustique (Mick had to pull me up after, shamefully, I could not recover from the twist!); and having happy birthday sung to me by Brian Ferry and Richard E. Grant. I was asked out by Hugh Grant (and went!); partied at what I called Jimmy Carr’s celebtastic weekly house parties attended by Sir Elton John, James Corden and the like; and, at Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch’s engagement party, I received the ultimate compliment on my outfit from the Dame Joan Collins. The adventures, laughter, drama and excitement were neverending. Party after party, celeb after celeb, private villas, palaces, MPs and royalty adorned our crazy life on this road less travelled. From the low-budget, dark, smoke- and fume-filled halls of Earls Court Exhibition Centre and the NEC in Birmingham, where the highlights of our nights out were a good curry and gallons of beer followed by ridiculous games of girl-on-girl arm wrestling and the Celebrity Loo Roll Challenge – this entailed Clarkson, Hammond, May or The Stig having to return from the bathroom with loo roll tucked down their trousers, trailing a length of loo paper from cubicle to table without it breaking – Jeremy ascended to great heights, both in his professional career and his personal life. So too did our relationship, leading us both into a social circle that most can only dream of." In The Wonderful World of Jeremy Clarkson, Phillipa Sage shares her continuing adventures – the ongoing highs, lows and constant mayhem – she shared for so many years with Clarkson and his fellow presenters, Hammond and May, some of which she had begun to detail in her first book, Off Road with Clarkson, Hammond and May.

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Book SynopsisWhile Fanny Cradock cut a controversial figure – berating Margaret Thatcher for wearing ‘cheap shoes and clothes’, writing off Eamonn Andrews as a ‘blundering amateur’ and famously being forced to apologise for insulting a housewife cook on The Big Time – her cookery programmes were enormously popular.Dressed in evening gown, drop earrings and pearls, donning thick make-up, she boomed orders to her partner Johnnie, a gentle, monocled stooge who was portrayed as an amiable drunk. The programmes were watched by millions and were hugely influential: the Queen Mother told Fanny that she and Johnnie were ‘mainly responsible’ for the improvement in catering standards since the war; Keith Floyd declared that ‘she changed the whole nation’s cooking attitudes’; for Esther Rantzen ‘she created the cult of the TV chef’.Lavishly illustrated and illuminated by amusing facts and anecdotes, Fabulous Fanny Cradock paints a fun, entertaining portrait of this extraordinary woman.

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Book SynopsisShawn Levy, author of ‘Rat Pack Confidential’ brings alive London in the swinging Sixties with a gripping, groovy story of those who created the scene that changed the world. For a few years in the 1960s, London was the coolest city on earth: a spontaneous, dizzying stew of pop music, fashion, film, scandal, drugs & sex, crime, the avant garde underground and the tabloid obsession with fame. The rest of the world watched in awe. Snaking through it are such eminent swinging Londoners as The Dreamer (actor Terence Stamp), The Chameleon (Rolling Stone Mick Jagger), The Loner (Beatles manager Brian Epstein), The Snapper (photographer David Bailey) and The Blue Blood (art dealer Robert Fraser), as well as such figures as comedian Peter Cook; hairdresser Vidal Sassoon; singer Marianne Faithfull; fashion designer Mary Quant; supermodels Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy; gangsters Ron and Reggie Kray; actor Michael Caine; actresses Catherine Deneuve, Lynn Redgrave and Julie Christie; pop groups The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks; filmmakers Roman Polanski, Richard Lester and Michelangelo Antonioni; as well as the various participants in the Profumo scandal, the Great Train Robbery, the rise of LSD, the radical underground, the heyday of the gambling club and the fashion boutique and various and sundry scandals, scenes and sensations. Due to a combination of massive talent and sheer luck, they dominated the world scene. But the party was to end – after seven short years it seemed that everyone was now a Swinging Londoner and the same vibe was found in Paris, New York and San Francisco. ‘Ready, Steady, Go’ recreates the whole show and contrasts a series of emblematic lives with the great events that shaped the time. Through these stories, Shawn Levy, author of ‘Rat Pack Confidential’, shows how the city reinvented cool and then seemed to lose its swing altogether.

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Book SynopsisA richly illustrated book about the celebrated connoisseur, collector and philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890), published by the Wallace Collection to mark the bicentenary of his birth. Includes 490 illustrations and new information on Wallace’s origins and life.

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Book SynopsisKathleen Ferrier has a reputation as the greatest lyric contralto of the twentiety century. Her story, from her humble beginnings as a telephone operator in Blackburn to the height of international fame as one of the world's leading concert artists and her untimely death at the age of forty-one, is told told with compelling insight and perception, using a variety of sources, from photographs, diaries, and private letters to the memoirs and recollections of those who knew her best. Despite having no formal musical training, Kathleen worked with all the celebrated conductors of the time, and is remembered for her performances of music by Brahms, Schubert and Mahler, as well as a handful of operatic roles. Enlarging considerably on many alternative biographies, this excellent account captures the warmth, humour and charm of a figure whose astonishing life and career proved to be, sadly, all too brief.

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Book SynopsisThis 1997 revised and updated biography of the celebrated artist, using the mass of new material which has come to light since Holroyd's two-volume first edition in the mid 1970s, reveals the complete story of John and his circle, from one of our great biographers. John studied at the Slade with his sister Gwen before both of them went to Paris. He lived and worked at feverish speed and his drawings were astonishing for their fluid lyrical line, their vigor and spontaneity. His life became a complex tale of two cities, London and Paris, of two wives and many families. 'The age of Augustus John was dawning,' Virginia Woolf wrote of the year 1908, which saw many portraits of writers and artists and small glowing oil panels of figures in a landscape. His most striking work was done in the years before the First World War and when he died in 1961 his death was treated as a landmark signaling the end of a distant era.Trade ReviewSuperb biography. . . . Holroyd has it all -- Robert Hughes * Time *Vastly informative and hugely entertaining * Newsweek *An entertaining, essentially comic story... Holroyd tells it with great skill and elegance * Sunday Telegraph *Here is one of the most entertaining lives ever written... Holroyd depicts his subjects with great sympathy and understanding... Very funny... thought-provoking -- Philip Hensher * Mail on Sunday *Both a celebration and a tragedy. The celebration of a man of enormous vitality, intermittent zest and remarkable magnetism, and of the most naturally gifted artist that the English-speaking world has produced in the last hundred years; and the tragedy of a man who never came to terms with himself... A wonderfully engrossing, entertaining and even moving book -- Allan Massie * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA Life with Colour is the first complete survey of Gerard Wagner's biography and his artistic intentions, featuring dozens of illustrations and more than 120 colour plates. The life and work of Gerard Wagner (1906-1999) were closely aligned to the artistic-spiritual stream connected with the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. He first heard of the Goetheanum - and of its destruction by fire at New Year 1922/23 - whilst still a youth. In 1926, he made his first visit to Dornach, but his intended stay of a week turned into a lifelong sojourn of over 73 years. He found there an active, striving community with which he felt intimately connected. From the start, Gerard Wagner immersed himself in the various artistic impulses that Rudolf Steiner had instigated. This, together with an intensive study of anthroposophy, formed the basis upon which he forged his own approach to painting. The many years he spent in colour experimentation led him to discover objective principles within the language of colour and form that are an inspiration to many today. His paintings, first shown at the Goetheanum in the early 1940s, were exhibited internationally, most notably at the Menshikov Palace, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia, in 1997. '[Wagner's] whole being bowed before the mystery of colour in a loving, joyful yet serious way, full of devotion and dignity. His life and work itself became a living metaphor of the creative power of colour.' - Christian Hitsch 'Caroline Chanter has not only accomplished a great and seminal study that illuminates the life and work of Gerard Wagner, but has done a great service also to the Goetheanum and its School of Spiritual Science.' - Peter Selg '[Gerard Wagner was] a soul which on earth was devoted so selflessly and in such purity to the beings that are revealed... in forms and colours. He helped them to utterance and manifestation in this world of ours.' - Sergei O. Prokofieff

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Book SynopsisAlvar Aalto remains Finland's greatest architect, retains his place among the Modern Masters of twentieth-century architecture and is now recognized internationally as one of the world's greatest architects of all time. For Finland, Aalto, through his architecture, furniture, glassware and sculpture, contributed perhaps more than any other Finn to the creation of the cultural identity of the new independent Finland and its promotion around the world. His Finnish Pavilions in Paris and New York from the Thirties placed Finland centre-stage, establishing its identity as a modern, innovative country and generated huge interest in this northern land of lakes and forests. He went on to work in 18 countries around the world, as well as designing many of Finland's most important buildings of the 50s, 60s and 70s. This new biography of Aalto is the first to comprehensively cover his life, from the backwoods of Ostrabothnia to international fame and all of his buildings, from the early alterations and extensions to shops and houses in Jyvaskyla to Finlandia Hall.It draws on Aalto's archive, recollections of former employees and contemporaneous publications to fully explore Alvar Aalto the architect, rather than simply Alvar Aalto's architecture. For the first time, his life is set in the context of the events that surrounded and shaped it - the Finnish Civil War, the Great Depression, The Winter and Continuation Wars, the post-war boom in education, Finland's industrialisation and eventually the social revolution of the 60s which led to his characterization as a member of a Finnish elite and temporary unpopularity. It covers his life from his childhood, growing up in regional Jyvaskyla and Alajarvi, his architectural studies in Helsinki, combat in the Civil War through to the founding of his first office, his early neo-classical work and his international breakthrough with the completion of Paimio Sanatorium and Viipuri Library. It deals with his personal life, his marriage to Aino, what working life in his first office was like, the architectural competitions, his key friendships and continuous financial difficulties.As his career progressed, it explores the patrons who were so important to him - the Gullichsens and the founding of Artek, his new American friends, professorship at MIT. After the war, the death of Aino, marriage to Elissa and the period of his greatest architectural achievements - Saynatsalo Town Hall, Otaniemi University and Imatra Church. It considers the organisation of his new office in Helsinki, his expanding team, fame and eventually vanity. The book seeks to understand what drove him, the combination of skills, talents and character traits, which led to his extraordinary global success. As you will be aware, there is no shortage of books on Alvar Aalto, or to be more precise, there is no shortage of books on Alvar Aalto's Architecture. (Only one previous biography exists, published first in 1984 and now out of print). This book is about an architect and his architecture, written by another architect, not an architectural historian. It is the first, frank and fully-comprehensive biography of Alvar Aalto.

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Book SynopsisA musical composer who dabbled in the Dada movement, a Bohemian gymnopediste of fin-de-siecle Montmartre, and a legendary dresser known as The Velvet Gentleman for his sartorial choices, Erik Satie was nearly unprecedented in technique, style and philosophy among European composers in the early twentieth century. Yet his legacy has largely languished in the shadows of Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel. Mary E. Davis now brings Satie to life in this fascinating new biography that demonstrates that his musical innovations reached as far as his influence. Satie redefined the boundaries of the composer's art, devising new methods of artistic expression that melded ordinary elements and rarefied genres of words, visual art and music. Davis argues that Satie's modernist aesthetic was grounded in the contradictions apparent in his life such as enrolling in the conservative Schola Cantorum after working as a cabaret performer and is reflected in his irreverent essays, drawings and music." Erik Satie" explores how the composer was embraced by both the avant-garde and Parisian elite, an experience that immersed him in the worlds of high fashion and cutting-edge modernist art, and subsequently gave him the aesthetic impetus to create the new musical style of Neoclassicism. Satie also crucially employed the power of the image through his infamous fashion statements, Davis contends, to establish his place in the art world, and in this connection between couture and culture, Satie was at the heart of a nascent celebrity culture. A fascinating and informative portrait, with numerous illustrations that include art by Satie himself, "Erik Satie" reassesses the accepted history of modernist music and restores the composer to his rightful pioneering status.Trade Review'A welcome reassessment of Satie that places him at the hub of radical events' - Classic FM Magazine '[this] slim, yet powerful biography ... Mary E. Davis's fascinating biography adds much to our understanding about this enigmatic yet crucial modernist figure.' -Modernism/Modernity 'a lucid, elegantly written biography and a distinguished addition to the general literature on the composer ... the book's greatest asset is Davis's consistent focus on the complex social milieu of Satie's career and ways that this fertile environment shaped and defined his work. Her exploration of the symbiotic relationship between music, art, and fashion provides a solid foundation for the examination of similar issues with composers from France and beyond. Erik Satie is a welcome step in that direction.' - Notes

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Book SynopsisThe first book ever on the classic British rock band UFO. Based around the author's many interviews with all the key players such as Phil Mogg, Pete Way & Michael Schenker. Noted author Martin Popoff takes you through the Schenker era in great detail; album-by-album, song by song along with touring anecdotes and of course, tales revolving around the wild and excessive behaviour that was very much a part of the band. Rounding if off is a full discography.

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Book SynopsisStanley Baxter delighted over 20 million viewers at a time with his television specials. His pantos became legendary. His divas and dames were so good they were beyond description. Baxter was a most brilliant cowboy Coward, a smouldering Dietrich. He found immense laughs as Formby and Liberace. And his sex-starved Tarzan swung in a way Hollywood could never have imagined. But who is the real Stanley Baxter? The comedy actor’s talents are matched only by his past reluctance to colour in the detail of his own character. Now, the man behind the mischievous grin, the twinkling eyes and the once- Brylcreemed coiffure is revealed. In a tale of triumphs and tragedies, of giant laughs and great falls from grace, we discover that while the enigmatic entertainer could play host to hundreds of different voices, the role he found most difficult to play was that of Stanley Baxter.Trade Review'I f**king love Stanley Baxter.' - Billy Connolly Praise for Stanley Baxter ‘Stanley Baxter is my comedy hero. He had big ideas and he fought for the money to do them. Then when he’d had enough he just walked away.’ – ALAN CUMMING ‘I don’t know anybody that doesn’t think Stanley Baxter is a genius.’ – JONATHAN ROSS ‘I really don’t think the phrase ‘out of this world’ fits anyone better than it does Stanley Baxter.’ – FORD KIERNAN

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Book Synopsis‘Kevin does what I pretend to do. Kevin’s a proper musician.’ David Bowie‘Kevin Armstrong has been around, and around.’ Iggy PopGrowing up in a world of punk squats and the London pub-rock scene, suburban rookie guitarist Kevin Armstrong found himself signed to EMI as a solo artist in the early 80s, but fate had other plans for him, his life and career changing in an instant when he was called for a studio date with an unnamed star at Abbey Road.That unnamed star was soon revealed to be David Bowie, and that afternoon’s recording catapulted this unlikely lad onto the world’s grandest stages alongside some of the biggest names in the business. Kevin has gone on to carve out a singular career as a producer, songwriter, and guitarist, performing live and recording with everyone from Grace Jones to Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop to Roy Orbison, Sandie Shaw to Alien Sex Fiend.Absolute Beginner is the story of what it takes to survive as a self-taught musician. It provides an honest and funny glimpse into the backstage world of the artists Kevin has worked with, and is packed with acerbic, laugh-out-loud observations on popular music and musicians from someone who has had a prime seat at the high table of rock’n’roll for more than forty years.

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Book Synopsisn 1958, a talented young musician by the name of Harry Webb adopted a new stage name - and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Cliff Richard, first with The Drifters and then backed by The Shadows, dominated the British music scene in the late 1950s and early 60s with memorable hits such as Move It, Living Doll and Summer Holiday.He was the UK's answer to Elvis, and led a group of artists that included the likes of Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde as they took the nation by storm with their new and exciting rock 'n' roll sensation.But, while the popularity of others would be replaced by Beatlemania, Cliff was only just getting started. As time's moved on he''s adapted his style to softer rock and middle-of-the-road pop, and an increased focus on his faith has even seen him venture into contemporary Christian music.In an unrivalled career that has now spanned six decades, Cliff has enjoyed unprecedented chart success, came agonisingly close to a Eurovision Song Contest win and has cemented himself as one of the best-selling British performers of all time.This special picture-packed edition explores his 60 years at the top, and celebrates the life and times of a true music legend.

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Book SynopsisA grinding celebration of the metal gods Judas Priest in all their sumptuous glory. A photo-stuffed coffee table book with the entire fifty plus year history in meticulous timeline order - a rock-hard reference book, with the facts presented mostly soberly and efficiently. This book contains all manner of facts that also takes a detailed look at offshoot bands and side-projects throughout the visually stunning pages.

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Book SynopsisRobbie Williamsis the perfect choice for the very first Path to Fame book. Robert Peter Williamsdid not become Robbie until, aged sixteen, he joined a bunch of boy bandhopefuls who eventually made it to the very top as Take That.

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Book SynopsisBorn in 1852 in a small coastal town in Scotland, Helen D’Oyly Carte, through academic brilliance and an incredible talent for ‘managing chaos’, developed and ran the world’s foremost top entertainment and hospitality organisation with her husband, Richard D’Oyly Carte (known as D’Oyly). By the age of 30, she was running five Gilbert & Sullivan companies for the Savoy Group in the United States, crossing the Atlantic thirty times, and for the next three decades she ran the Savoy Theatre, the Savoy Hotel, Claridges and Simpson's-in-the-Strand. She was the only one trusted by the prickly, brilliant William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, to keep them from breaking apart, as they so regularly wanted to do. From a conventional upbringing, she chose to remain in London after the emigration of her family to Australia, first as an actress, then working alongside D’Oyly – she took over the reins as he became ill in the late 1880s. Until her death in 1913, she flourished and was famous, interviewed and admired, in a competitive, vibrant London that was the centre of world power and commerce. Queen of The Savoy charts Helen’s course from Wigtown to the West End, where running a company with hundreds of employees, led to her fame and fortune. The artists Whistler and Sickert were friends and immortalised her in portraits. She was known in her time as the true founder of the Gilbert and Sullivan franchise and this biography will bring to light, some 110 years after her death, the extraordinary role that she played in one of Britain’s greatest success stories.Trade Review‘This lively account of the life of Helen D’Oyly Carte is an extraordinary journey through the arts and business in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, as seen through the eyes of the ‘Queen of the Savoy’. Surfacing the stories of women who have often been rendered invisible is dependent on painstaking research. Elisabeth Kehoe has left no stone unturned in her excavation of the life story of this exceptional woman - an act of tenacity by the author that matches the essence of the subject of this fascinating book.’ - Professor Jo Fox, Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Engagement) and Dean of the School of Advanced Study, University of London

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Book SynopsisDuring his 1920s heyday, Arnold Bennett was one of Britain’s most celebrated writers. As the author of The Old Wives’ Tale and Clayhanger he was a household name, writing just as much for the common man as London’s literati. His face was plastered over theatre hoardings and the sides of West End omnibuses. His life represents the ultimate rags-to-riches story of a man who ‘banged on the door of Fortune like a weekly debt collector’ as one of his obituaries so vividly put it. Yet for all his success, few were aware how cursed Bennett felt by his life-long stutter and other debilitating character traits. In the years running up to his death in 1931, his affairs were close to collapse as he fought a losing battle on three fronts: with his estranged wife; with his disenchanted mistress; and from a literary perspective with Virginia Woolf. As the first full length biography of Bennett since 1974, the work draws on a wealth of unpublished diaries and letters to shed new light on a personality who can be considered a ‘Lost Icon’ of early Twentieth Century Britain.Trade Review“Hated by Woolf, but this life of Arnold Bennett proves the literary snobs wrong” The Sunday Times “Excellent book” A.N Wilson, The Spectator "First-rate biography" Roger Lewis, Daily Mail "sheds new light" Margaret Drabble, The Times Literary Supplement "This excellent book puts Bennett back on the map" Simon Heffer, The Telegraph "absorbing biography" D J Taylor, Literary Review "a work that must now displace [Margaret Drabble's] as the standard account of the novelist's life" Revd Dr John Pridmore, Church Times

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Book SynopsisGet your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some of the world’s best-known and loved rock albums and records, including Oasis’s What’s the Story (Morning Glory), a number of Queen songs including Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and Motörhead’s first recordings. This new edition will be fully revised and updated with new chapters on the artists who have recorded at Rockfield since 2007, including new interviews with bands such as Thunder, The Dirty Youth, Gun and YES; the Studios’ recent appearances in film and television such as the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film and the Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm documentary; and a section on Rockfield’s neighbouring rehearsal studio, Monnow Valley, which later became a recording studio in its own right and has hosted bands such as Black Sabbath. A must-read for anyone interested in rock music and music history.

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Book SynopsisWhen singer, musician, and broadcast journalist Malka Marom was asked to interview Joni Mitchell in 1973, she eagerly accepted the opportunity to converse with the performer she'd first met late one night in 1966 at an open mic in Yorkville. More conversations followed over the next four decades of friendship, and it was only after Joni and Malka completed their last recorded interview, in 2012, that Malka discovered the heart of their discussions: the creative process. In Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now, Joni and Malka follow this thread through seven decades of life and art, discussing the influence of Joni's childhood, love and loss, playing dives and huge festivals, acclaim and criticism, poverty and affluence, glamorous triumphs and tragic mistakes... This riveting narrative, told in interviews, lyrics, paintings, and photographs, is shared in the hope of inspiring others.Trade Review'There's more than two sides to every story and this charming dialogue will show you that providing a special insight into not just Joni Mitchell but the nature of art itself'.' - Louder Than War; 'Malka Marom's conversations with Joni Mitchell provide an illuminating, candid and sometimes startling insight into the life and work of one of the most remarkable artists of the 20th Century'.' - Record Collector; '......enlightening and candid. A mutual respect floods the pages as Malka gets Joni to open up on a manner of all topics.'' - Gigslutz; 'The pleasures and the pleasures of being a fly on the wall.' - Arts Fuse; 'In the rare interviews she gives, Joni Mitchell doesn't hold back. Mitchell comes across as more candid and outspoken than usual, likely due to the fact that Marom is part of Mitchell's inner circle of friends.' - Quill & Quire

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Book SynopsisA deserted Paris house holds the mystery of a brilliant Viennese modernist who worked alongside Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos before vanishing.Wyeth takes readers on a deeply personal and revelatory journey. This research process, which readers experience vicariously, makes Wyeth’s prose exhilarating as tiny details become breakthroughs of grand proportions. […] For late architect and painter Jean Welz, designs should reflect one’s aesthetic and political commitments. This narrative will resonate with anyone interested in the politics of architecture, or the pursuit of knowledge at large.—Hyperallergic "BEST ART BOOKS OF 2022"Welz’s having been “lost” is indeed a travesty of architectural history to which the book serves as a welcome antidote.—Artforum A leading painter still highly regarded in South Africa, Jean Welz's prior architectural career has been virtually unknown until a string of discoveries unfolded for author and filmmaker Peter Wyeth, allowing him to narrate this amazing true tale of genius. Trained in ultra-sophisticated, but conservative Vienna, Welz was sent to Paris for the 1925 Art Deco exhibition by his influential employer, renowned architect Josef Hoffmann. There he met preeminent modern architects Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos. The latter employed him to assist in building a house for the founder of Dada, Tristan Tzara. They all mixed in avant-garde circles at the Dôme Café in Montparnasse along with Welz’s classmate from Vienna, later Chicago-based architect Gabriel Guevrekian; Welz’s future employer Raymond Fischer, whose archive was mostly destroyed by Nazis; and photographer André Kertész. Through Welz’s South African family archive, author Wyeth retrieves stories, letters, portfolios, and photographs generations after Welz’s death that unravel his heroic designs, his stunning built critique of Corbusier’s “Five Points of Architecture,” a gravestone for Marx’s daughter, and the many ways that Welz disappeared amongst his collaborators, intentionally and not. This account of why Jean Welz did not become a famous name in architecture takes us through his brother’s Nazi-art-dealings, illness, betrayal, emigration, and an uncompromising artist’s vision at the same time sifting through significant, literally-concrete evidence of Welz’s built projects and visionary designs.Trade ReviewPeter Wyeth has masterfully charted architect Jean Welz’s work and trajectory from Vienna to Paris and South Africa, as well as his contacts with remarkable clients, colleagues, artists and photographers. He has at last paid homage to his striking designs, such as the Zilveli villa built in Paris in 1933, which deserves to be inscribed in the narrative of European Modernism. —Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture, Institute of Fine Arts, New York UniversityKnown, if at all, as a much-admired painter in South Africa in the mid-twentieth century, Jean Welz's complex architecture career is now marvelously pieced together for the first time. —Robin Middleton, professor Emeritus, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia UniversityPeter Wyeth's really marvelous book uncovers a highly gifted modernist unknown to the public, whose architecture absorbed the most important ideas of Loos and Le Corbusier. As a filmmaker, Wyeth combines a sharp analysis of Europe's artistic movements between the two wars with refreshing personal insights to create a fascinating portrait that is both fluid and easy to read. —Burkhardt Rukschcio, author of Adolf Loos: Leben und WerkOne of the last testimonies of modernism in intramural Paris is the the Maison Zilveli by the Viennese architect Jean Welz, near Adolf Loos and the Roche du Corbusier house. […] British filmmaker Peter Wyeth, very involved in the preservation of the house, explains that “it is very rare to have a modernist house that has remained unchanged: it is a real case study.” —Le Journal des Arts Jean Welz and his architecture do exist! Let's hope his architecture survives and defies ignorance. — Richard Klein, architect, professor, chair of docomomo FrancePeter Wyeth is to be commended not only for rediscovering Jean Welz and his work but also for reconstructing the network of interactions, innovations and transmission of ideas that constitute the real history of architecture. —Tim Benton, professor and author of The Villas of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret 1920–1930This vivid and remarkable excavation of the life and work of the Viennese-born architect Jean Welz is a splendid contribution to the history of modernism. Welz was closely connected with two of the titans of the age, Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos, but, even more, he was an excellent architect, whose work was sensitive, beautiful, and inventive. Wyeth tells his story well, bringing known aspects of the tale of modern architecture into sharper focus, while adding much that is new. —Christopher Long, professor, University of Texas at Austin and author of The New Space: Movement and Experience in Viennese Modern ArchitectureTable of ContentsThe Mystery of Jean Welz Part I: Invisible Jean Welz Does Not Exist Le Château Moche — Paris, Christmas Day 2012 The Tradouw Pass — 1940 Part II: Vienna Finis Austriae — Vienna, October 1918 Josef Hoffmann and The First Wave Adolf Loos and the Second Wave Hans Welz Architect Part III: Paris Art Deco — Paris, 1925 The Guevrekian Letter The Third Man Mallet-Stevens / Le Corbusier / Jean Welz Raymond Fischer Le Chemin Aérien / The Aerial Way “Un Nègre Viennois” Part IV: Oeuvre The Portfolio House for an Artist Inondation — Montauban, 1931 Maison Landau A Minimum House Villa Darmstadter —1932 Oswald Haerdtl — 1932 Maison Zilveli — 1933 Mont D’Or and Pavillon D’Autriche The Unbuilt Part V: Tales A Tale of Two Balconies A Tale of Two Brothers The Dealer and the Artist Corbusier’s Note The Martienssen Affair A Tale of Three Monuments Part VI: Jean House on the Lake The Dialogues of Jean Welz Pains and Pleasures of Anonymity A Solitary Adventure The Character of Jean Welz Christensen Gallery Inger Welz Zilveli Destroyed Appendices After Architecture South Africa Addendum Bibliography Index Acknowledgments Plates

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Book SynopsisFabulously dressed with a flair all his own, unapologetic yet vulnerable, talented yet supremely humble: Harry Styles is a cultural phenomenon and icon for our times. This photo-packed, gold-foiled luxe gift book celebrates the global superstar’s impact on music and fashion and how his choice of positive and authentic self-expression and tolerance has helped redefine modern masculinity and celebrity worldwide. Divided into three sections - each with a short introduction about the music, the fashion, and the joyful magic of his appeal - this amazing collection of Harry’s signature moments includes: The Met Gala and his Gucci sheer pussy-bow black blouse and heeled boots, The sparkling Coachella performance with Shania Twain, The incredible launch of the #1 hit and video, As It Was, His stunning appearances at red carpets, the Grammys, BRIT Awards, and more! If a person could be a smile, then that would be Harry - and that essence of Harry is what this exciting book captures. Stylers and Harries will adore and treasure this keepsake. Contributors include: Alex Bilmes, British journalist and editor-in-chief of Esquire UK, Aya Kanai, the noted fashion editor and Head of Creative and Editorial at Google Shopping, Jem Aswad, senior music editor at VarietyTrade Review"While you can’t actually bring the 'Cherry' singer home, this book is the next best thing...."–Billboard.com"...An exciting project about your fave whimsical suit-wearing musician that’s filled to the brim with amazing pics of Harry throughout his already long career (he’s only 29, but he’s lived, like, seven lives, mmkay?)."–Cosmopolitan.com"A stunning new photo-packed book" –E! News"This book would be a fantastic gift for your Styles-loving friend or family member...."–Eugene Weekly"If you were one of the millions to see Harry Styles shimmy in glitter and fur during his 'Love on Tour' jaunt earlier this year and are looking to recreate the magical moment, you’ll want to get your hands on [this book]."–Variety.com

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Book SynopsisIn 1926 22 year - old Dutchman Willem de Kooning (1904 – 1997) travelled to the USA on a British freighter – without papers and hidden in the machine room. The young art student eked out a living by painting houses, signs and façades, before he was able aft er eight years to dedicate himself entirely to painting. In the United States he established contacts with the art scene and forged friendships with artists such as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Clifford Still, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Today De Ko oning belongs to the outstanding painters of Abstract Expressionism and together with Jackson Pollock is regarded as a pioneer of Action Painting. This publication vividly examines De Kooning’s life, marked by self - doubts, successes, new beginnings, excess es, and scandalous paintings, as well as the evolution of his artistic work. In addition, author Corinna Thierolf opens up exciting perspectives on De Kooning’s work by revealing entirely new, surprising relationships with the works of fellow artists such as Franz Marc, Piet Mondrian, or Wassily Kandinsky.

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Book SynopsisExplores the life and career of one of Hollywood's great dames.

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Book SynopsisWhat makes a work of art a masterpiece? Discover the answers in the fascinating stories of how these artworks came to be and the circumstances of their long-lasting impact on the world. Beginning with Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, we travel through time and a range of styles and stories – including theft, scandal, artistic reputation, politics and power – to Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, challenging the idea of what a masterpiece can be, and arriving in the twenty-first century with Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama, a modern-day masterpiece still to be tested by time.   Each artwork has a tale that reveals making a masterpiece often involves much more than just a demonstration of artistic skill: their path to fame is only fully disclosed by looking beyond what the eye can see. Rather than trying to describe the elements of greatness, Making a Masterpiece takes aTable of ContentsIntroduction Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci Judith Beheading Holofernes Artemisia Gentileschi Girl with a Pearl Earring Johannes Vermeer The Great Wave Katsushika Hokusai Fifteen Sunflowers Vincent van Gogh Woman in Gold Gustav Klimt American Gothic Grant Wood Guernica Pablo Picasso Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird Frida Kahlo Campbell’s Soup Cans Andy Warhol Michelle Obama Amy Sherald Endnotes Select Bibliography Index Picture Credits Acknowledgements About the Author

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Book SynopsisLaunching a new series, What Coco Chanel Can Teach You About Fashion breaks down Coco Channel's life, work and legacy into 36 highly visual lessons. Covering the iconic looks, Chanel's inspiration and the details that define her sartorial tastes.

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Book SynopsisA fully illustrated account of Van Gogh's time at the asylum in Saint-Remy.Table of ContentsA Note to the Reader Preface Prologue: Two Brothers, Two Lives 1. Arrival 2. Enclosed Garden 3. Life Inside 4. Alienists 5. Wheatfield 6. The Stars 7. Beyond the Walls 8. Olive Groves 9. Cypresses 10. Fellow Travellers 11. Crises 12. Mirror Images 13. Transforming into Colour 14. Memories of the North 15. Almond Blossom 16. Isolated Postscript I: The Asylum after Van Gogh Postscript II: Imprisoned in Russia On the Trail of Van Gogh Chronology Endnotes Select Bibliography Index Picture Credits Acknowledgements

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