Biography: arts and entertainment Books

Book SynopsisFor the first time, author Sophie Johnson reveals the story behind Miranda's rise to fame. The comedian was born in Torquay in 1972, yet despite graduating with a degree in politics, she always wanted to be a comedian. In 2002 she performed at the Edinburgh Festival, and her early career was followed by Jennifer Saunders, who cast Miranda in an Ab Fab Christmas special. TV roles such as The Vicar of Dibley, Nighty Night, Hyperdrive and Not Going Out followed - before Miranda Hart's Joke Shop was commissioned by BBC Radio 2 in 2008, leading to the development of the smash hit series Miranda, which made her a household name. Since then, Miranda has branched out into straight acting, with a highly-acclaimed role in BBC drama Call the Midwife. She is the newest comedy legend to capture the imagination of the public - this is her full story.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIncluding her survival of Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake, this book is an enthralling account of Dorothy Britton’s life, loves and discoveries in an amazingly varied life and career. Bilingual from birth, she found the immense joy of blending in with peoples of different cultures simply by getting the sound right when speaking their languages to the extent that she herself sounds Japanese. While interviewing Talent Education’s Shinichi Suzuki, she realized his peerless ‘mother tongue method’ for learning the violin was ideal for foreign languages too. While composing music for many documentary films introducing Japan to the world, in Empire Photosound’s beautiful My Garden Japan she used the ancient instruments of the Imperial Court Orchestra. The film was shown daily at Montreal’s EXPO 67 where it garnered a prize. Amusing episodes and stories of fascinating people and relationships abound in the book, as do valuable insights into topics such as the post-war Occupation and its impact on everyday life, the role of women, learning Japanese, marriage customs, food and many other aspects of Japanese culture and society. Appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2010 for her highly regarded contributions to bridging two cultures, this long-awaited memoir will be widely welcomed. Here is the remarkable and remarkably frank story of a life lived to the full by the doyenne of British residents in Japan that has benefited so many and touched the lives of countless others.Table of ContentsPlate section faces page 128 Preface List of Plates 1. Rhythms Are What Divide Us 2. My Mother 3. My Father 4. How Marrying Changes my Father’s Life 5. The Great Kanto Earthquake 6. Hayama 7. Mother Contacts Her First Japanese Friend 8. Royal Friends 9. The Japanese Language 10. Winters in Yokohama 11. Father’s Sudden Death 12. England 13. Bermuda 14. Mills College, 1943-1945 15. London, 1945-1949 16. Innocence and Ignorance 17. Back in Japan – 1949 18. Love and Sex 114 19. Meeting ‘Boy’ 20. Society in Japan 21. Marriage Customs 22. Washoku and O-furo 23. My Royal Neighbours 24. Two Composers 25. London and Paris 26. Harps and Angels 27. Back to Work in Japan 28. Dreaming of Elephants 29. Finding the Britton 30. Sea Shells 31. The ‘Katakana Prison’ and Mr Suzuki 32. Poetry 33. The Island in Between 34. Marrying ‘Boy’ – 1968 35. The Japanese Crane – Bird of Happiness 36. Comfort and Solace with Ted Dorothy Britton’s Published Works Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisBill Bruford, once called the godfather of progressive-rock drumming, has been at the top of his profession for four decades. This is his memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Earthworks and many more. It is an honest and entertaining account of life on the road and in the studio, rubbing shoulders with the famous, the less famous, and the infamous, and creating an impressive tally of great music.A rock musician with the temperament of a classical musician who became a jazz musician, Bruford defies all the clichés about drummers. He says: 'You write what you have to write, you play what you have to play, because you cannot sleep at night. If you can sleep at night, you shouldn't be doing this anyway.'From time to time, at polite dinner parties, someone will ask Bill what he does. He replies that he is a musician. 'Yes, but what do you really do?' retorts the enquirer. This unusual, funny and insightful music memoir answers that question.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally written in Danish in 1980, Pink Moon was the first biography of Nick Drake, and remains the only one to include exclusive interviews with the singer’s parents, Rodney and Molly Drake. In this new, significantly updated edition, available in English for the first time, author and poet Gorm Henrik Rasmussen reveals more from his visits to the Drakes in their home Far Leys – the first, just five years after the death of their troubled son. Rasmussen includes new interviews with Nick’s friends and collaborators plus extracts taken from his eight-year correspondence with the Drakes, and from telephone conversations he had with Rodney every month over four years. Full of intimate detail about the last three years of Nick’s life spent at his childhood home, Pink Moon – A Story about Nick Drake is a personal, original, and moving retelling of the life, death, and posthumous rise of a poet and guitarist who was strangely unsuited for his own time, and is more popular now than he ever was in life.Trade Review"...constructs the story of Drake’s life with insights from those who knew him best... Rasmussen writes elegantly about the music, while his detailed account of the last years of Drake’s life are sensitively handled. By the end of this book, Rasmussen has breathed new life into his subject and his music." source: www.mojo4music.com -- Mark Blake.'Gorm tells the story with great understanding of Nick and his art. He must be credited with writing the first book about Nick, and possibly the best one too. Like Nick's own works, it was unappreciated for many years.. now that its truth and magic are revealed, it deserves to find a much wider audience and will undoubtedly bring satisfaction to all those who wish to know the real Nick Drake a little better.' -- Jason Creed. * Pynk Moon fanzine *'A story in which straight biographical bits are interwoven with skillfully composed, extrapolated scenes ... fans will find it a great companion book to Drake’s music, and rock lovers will enjoy the author’s serious, personal attempt to get intimate with his icon.' Source: www.reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/03/collection-development/books-for-dudes/books-for-dudes/ -- Douglas Lord.Table of ContentsForeword 1 Zeeland, 1978 Rodney and Molly The Music Room 2 The Guitar A Trip to Africa A Poet with a Guitar The American What Exactly is a Dream? The Royal Festival Hall The Girl and the Monkey Bryter Layter Pink Moon Hanging on a Star 3 Existential Depression Time of No Reply Family Tree Discography Sources

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally written in Danish in 1980, Pink Moon was the first biography of Nick Drake, and remains the only one to include exclusive interviews with the singer’s parents, Rodney and Molly Drake. In this new, significantly updated edition, available in English for the first time, author and poet Gorm Henrik Rasmussen reveals more from his visits to the Drakes in their home Far Leys – the first, just five years after the death of their troubled son. Rasmussen includes new interviews with Nick’s friends and collaborators plus extracts taken from his eight-year correspondence with the Drakes, and from telephone conversations he had with Rodney every month over four years. Full of intimate detail about the last three years of Nick’s life spent at his childhood home, Pink Moon – A Story about Nick Drake is a personal, original, and moving retelling of the life, death, and posthumous rise of a poet and guitarist who was strangely unsuited for his own time, and is more popular now than he ever was in life.Trade Review"...constructs the story of Drake’s life with insights from those who knew him best... Rasmussen writes elegantly about the music, while his detailed account of the last years of Drake’s life are sensitively handled. By the end of this book, Rasmussen has breathed new life into his subject and his music." source: www.mojo4music.com -- Mark Blake.'Gorm tells the story with great understanding of Nick and his art. He must be credited with writing the first book about Nick, and possibly the best one too. Like Nick's own works, it was unappreciated for many years.. now that its truth and magic are revealed, it deserves to find a much wider audience and will undoubtedly bring satisfaction to all those who wish to know the real Nick Drake a little better.' -- Jason Creed."A story in which straight biographical bits are interwoven with skillfully composed, extrapolated scenes ... fans will find it a great companion book to Drake’s music, and rock lovers will enjoy the author’s serious, personal attempt to get intimate with his icon." Source: www.reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/03/collection-development/books-for-dudes/books-for-dudes/ -- Douglas Lord.Table of ContentsForeword 1 Zeeland, 1978 Rodney and Molly The Music Room 2 The Guitar A Trip to Africa A Poet with a Guitar The American What Exactly is a Dream? The Royal Festival Hall The Girl and the Monkey Bryter Layter Pink Moon Hanging on a Star 3 Existential Depression Time of No Reply Family Tree Discography Sources

Read more less

Book SynopsisGlen Matlock was a founding member of the Sex Pistols and co-wrote most of their iconic songs. His story of the Pistols’ rise to global infamy is an honest, insightful account of a group of intelligent malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack hypocrisy and stale conventions in society at large. Glen brilliantly captures the flavour of seventies Britain and reveals the complexities and personality clashes that made the Pistols so explosive at that time. Also includes true tales of the Pistols reunion tours of 1996 and 2003. Never mind the other bollocks-filled books about the Sex Pistols, here’s the truth.Trade Review'As the first band-member's view of the group that rescued rock from the foolishness of the mid-'70s, this is an engaging memoir' Source: www.ew.com/ -- Margot Mifflin.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGlen Matlock was a founding member of the Sex Pistols and co-wrote most of their iconic songs. His story of the Pistols’ rise to global infamy is an honest, insightful account of a group of intelligent malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack hypocrisy and stale conventions in society at large. Glen brilliantly captures the flavour of seventies Britain and reveals the complexities and personality clashes that made the Pistols so explosive at that time. Also includes true tales of the Pistols reunion tours of 1996 and 2002. Never mind the other bollocks-filled books about the Sex Pistols, here’s the truth.Trade Review'As the first band-member's view of the group that rescued rock from the foolishness of the mid-'70s, this is an engaging memoir' Source: www.ew.com/ -- Margot Mifflin.

Read more less