Search results for ""Author Anthony Meredith""
Omnibus Press Richard Rodney Bennett: The Complete Musician
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, in the enormous diversity of his activities, is arguably the most complete musician of all time. Not only does he have a remarkable 300 commissioned concert works to his credit, which have established him among the leading British twentieth-century composers, yet at the same time, with supreme success, he has also contrived to lead several completely different musical lives. For some, he is the ultimate exponent of 'crossover', as epitomised in his remarkable Concerto for Stan Getz and concert works for Cleo Laine. Others remember him as a concert pianist with a special enthusiasm for pioneering contemporary music, his partnerships with Susan Bradshaw, Jane Manning and Barry Tuckwell being particularly notable. Meanwhile, he also has over 70 film and television scores to his credit, the many classic titles ranging from "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" to "Equus" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral". For cabaret and jazz club devotees, he is, again, something completely different: one of the finest and most knowledgeable of all exponents of the Great American Songbook, a much-in-demand singer and accompanist over the past thirty-five years, and, as such, the stage partner of some of the most glamorous performers in the business. This, then, is a book about a uniquely gifted musician. It is also a study of a most engaging personality and a fascinatingly complex human being.
£22.46
The Book Guild Ltd Malcolm Arnold: The Inside Story
Many myths, masquerading as facts, were flourishing, when Anthony Meredith’s first Arnold biography came out, almost twenty years ago. Accordingly, he misrepresented several key issues, just as previous biographers had done. He also fudged others, for Arnold was still alive, and so, too, was his forceful carer. The many Arnold myths lived on. Three years ago, however, Malcolm Arnold’s daughter, Katherine, encouraged the biographer to write a new book with the true story of her father’s last thirty years. She had much new evidence to support it - material that confirmed her suspicions that when her father, in mid-life, came under the total control of two different carers, his vulnerability had been terribly exploited. Arnold’s last thirty years could only properly be understood if seen in the context of his earlier life, so a full biography beckoned. Nor could the years after the composer’s death be omitted, for things occurred in this period that shed much light on previous dramas. The Inside Story, then, sweeps away the many myths that have surrounded the intriguing figure of Malcolm Arnold. It offers arresting new facts about his life, fresh insights into his music and much food for thought about the care of the mentally ill and its legal aspects. This important addition to the literature of British music is an engrossing saga, told with compassion and candour.
£19.95
Troubador Publishing Stowe Legends of the Roxburgh Era
The foundation of Stowe as a Public School in 1923 saved a fine eighteenth-century mansion from demolition and the surrounding landscape gardens from being built upon or farmed. Stowe Legends tells of a host of intriguing characters who, under the inspirational headmaster J.F. Roxburgh, set about making a success of the ambitious new school that had inherited a grand, but somewhat down-at-heel home. Here, as never before, are vivid insights into its daily life during the Roxburgh era (1923-49), told from the perspective of many of the leading characters. Notable personalities include novelist T.H. White. Shakespearean scholar G. Wilson Knight, and Stowe’s glamorous first woman teacher, Doreen Watt. Omnipresent throughout the whole narrative is the common denominator in all the Legends’ lives, John Fergusson Roxburgh, adroitly presiding over ‘the many-coloured web of Stowe’ and somehow ensuring that, despite all vicissitudes, the ground-breaking educational ambitions of 1923 would triumphantly take root in Stowe’s unique Arcadian setting.
£15.99
Amberley Publishing Silverstone's First Grand Prix: 1948 the Race on the Runways
It was madness: Grand Prix drivers racing flat out from opposite ends of one long runway, only to turn away from each other at the last moment at corners improvised with hay bales. But such was the major part of the first Grand Prix course ever to be devised at Silverstone. Fortunately there were no head-on collisions, and the next year the organisers hit on a more sensible arrangement. But none of the many subsequent Grand Prix at Silverstone, for all the ever-increasing glamour and hype, have quite engendered the same excitement as that very first one in 1948, even though it was held on a long-disused airfield bereft of modern amenities. Silverstone’s First Grand Prix is a vivid recreation of that important day for British motor sport. But it is more than just the description of one historic race. We follow the various leading participants, both drivers and organisers, as fate draws them inexorably to Silverstone from different parts of the world and from very varied experiences, not least in the recent war. And after that one glorious day in early October is over and the RAC’s International Grand Prix of 1948 has become part of motor racing history, we learn what fate had further in store for them.
£16.99
Amberley Publishing Silverstone and Formula 1
For fans all over the world the thrilling partnership of Silverstone and Formula 1 has long represented one of the pinnacles of motor sport. Here the broad sweep of Silverstone’s Formula 1 history, a kaleidoscopic pageant of great cars and drivers, is explored in a new and highly accessible way through nine specific eras, each one delightfully and freshly illustrated: • The First Grand Prix and International Trophy (1948–49) • Forza, Alfa! Forza, Ferrari! (1950–51) • The Front-Engined Finale (1952–59) • Clark’s Dark Golden Age (1960–68) • The Stewart Dominance (1969–73) • The Hunt-Lauda Epoch (1973–79) • Three Titans: Prost, Mansell and Senna (1981–93) • The Schumacher Era (1994–2006) • New Heights: Hamilton and The Wing (2007 onwards) This photographic history of Silverstone and Formula 1 should appeal to motor racing fans everywhere, as it neatly captures the essence of what the highest level of a most demanding sport has meant to this very special venue.
£15.99